


We Are Spiraling on the Breeze

by glitterfics



Category: X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, First Time, Happy Ending, M/M, Medical Experimentation, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Torture, Violence, marvel-bang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-12
Updated: 2016-11-12
Packaged: 2018-08-30 15:28:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 40,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8538385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glitterfics/pseuds/glitterfics
Summary: What would happen if Bobby hadn't been in the kitchen with Logan when Xavier's school was attacked? What if he'd been hanging out with John instead?That one small shift meant that John and Bobby were captured by Stryker's men along with the small group of other students. From there everything in John's life changed as he discovered just what he was capable of and he found himself becoming the type of person that he'd never have believed he could be.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is an alternate take on X2, diverging after the school is attacked. I have also aged down the Cuckoos, aged up Jones a little and I've lengthened the amount of time between Xavier and Cyclops being captured at the prison and Magneto escaping. Thank you to my gorgeous beta, Jaki. And also, thank you to the mods of Marvel-bang on LJ and also hugs and kisses for the brilliant art to lazydazyfics and sandrasfisher <3 <3

[ ](http://s8.photobucket.com/user/glittersprite/media/x%20men%20spiraling%202%20xsml.jpg.html)

**We are Spiraling on the Breeze**

It wasn't that John disliked Rogue; she was pretty cool when you got to know her well enough for her to drop her defences. She had a wicked sense of humour and it was definitely fun to be around her; especially during those times she channelled Wolverine, developed a fondness for cigars and started calling everyone 'bub' - if only to see the looks on the faces of all the teachers. He just really disliked the way she treated Bobby and even that John didn't think she did on purpose. She was clearly desperate for friendship and, even more than that, some closeness when she could never actually be physically close to anyone. When Bobby developed his instant, and obvious to anyone in the immediate vicinity, super-crush on her, it gave Rogue a chance at that _closeness_ ; or at least, the illusion of it. The problem was that it was clear to everyone who wasn't Bobby, or the teachers who exchanged 'isn't puppy love so cute' glances at each other whenever Bobby and Rogue were around, that Rogue definitely didn't feel the same way about Bobby that he felt about her. John was sure that she liked Bobby well enough but her smiles at him were more 'fond' than 'madly in love' or even 'not quite in love but definitely attracted'.

John had been willing to put up with it though. He put up with Bobby's unsubtle mooning over the Untouchable Girl, the constant talking about her and the way her hair smelled of magnolias and even the way that Rogue always got added to any activity that John and Bobby did, essentially turning John into the third wheel in his own plans. He put up with it because since Rogue had arrived, Bobby was happy in a way that he hadn't been since his last trip home to Boston. 

Then Wolverine came back to the school and all of Rogue's pretence of being in love with Bobby went flying out of the window so fast that even Bobby could see it. John sat there and watched Bobby's face fall at the realisation that Rogue had a super-crush of her own and it definitely wasn't on him. That's when John had wanted to slap her, toxic skin be damned, because Bobby was his best friend and he deserved better.

"Does she even like me at all?" 

It was past midnight, several hours since the arrival of Wolverine, and Bobby was on his bed, slouched against the wall, looking as though someone had just kicked his dog.

"She likes you," John told him from his mirrored position on his own bed. "Otherwise she'd never put up with your weird doll obsession."

"They're collectables," Bobby replied automatically and with far less heat than he'd usually show when John insulted his action figure collection. "Did you see that smile she gave him? She's never smiled at me that way."

John shrugged. "Maybe that's the smile she saves for old people."

"John...stop saying what you think I want to hear. It doesn't suit you and you can't lie for shit," Bobby snapped and John sighed; it was always a bad sign when Bobby started cursing.

"Alright." He straightened up and fixed Bobby with a serious expression. "She likes you, Bobby, she just doesn't like you in the way that you want her to."

Bobby nodded and looked even sadder, if that was possible. But it was the truth and what Bobby had wanted, and probably needed, to hear.

"He's too old for her," he finally said in a sulky voice.

"Obviously," John replied. "But sometimes you can't help wanting who you want. If it helps, I don't think he reciprocates...like, at all."

"It doesn't help." Bobby pushed himself up out of his slouch. "I'm going to get some ice-cream."

Ice-cream. It was Bobby’s classic go-to when he was upset; he had his own stash right at the back of the freezer that everyone knew not to touch. John almost let him leave, just as he always did because once Bobby hit the ice-cream phase then you could barely get a word out of him and he never even shared the dessert, but for some reason, John didn’t want to do that this time. Maybe it was the fact that, without Bobby, John’s only options for the rest of the night were getting an early start on his homework or watching one of his Die Hard DVDs for the zillionth time. 

"Whoa, no. None of that." John stood instead and deliberately leaned over Bobby. "No drowning your sorrows in ice-cream. You're not a teenage girl. You're eighteen now, Drake, if you have to distract yourself then do it properly. Like a grown up girl."

Bobby flicked ice at John at the insult but John countered with a snap of his lighter and melted the ice before it could reach him. John knew that Bobby wasn't bothered by the light rain that fell onto his bed as a result; it was a common enough occurrence when a mutant with ice powers roomed with a mutant with fire powers. 

"I like ice-cream," Bobby insisted, stubbornly, but John just ignored him and carried on with his original point.

"All the teachers are gone which means that sneaking into the Professor's office is going to be a piece of cake. And I happen to know where the code to the Danger Room is hidden."

"How do you know that?" Bobby tilted his head, looking intrigued for a moment before snapping out of it. "No! We can't sneak into the Danger Room. The Professor will know as soon as he gets back."

John shrugged. "Probably but by then you won't care. You won't care about being in trouble and you certainly won't care about Rogue because we'll have had an awesome night doing whatever the fuck we want to with a touch of a button. Imagine it, Drake, we can programme the room to be whatever we want it to be; it'll be your pick. A tropical beach, Disneyworld, the Playboy Mansion..."

Bobby didn't say anything for a long moment but John knew him well enough to see the emotions clearly warring within him. Bobby was the good guy, the perfect student who had very close relationships with the Professor, Dr Grey, Summers and McCoy due to how young he'd been when he first joined the school. The idea of breaking the rules and having them be disappointed in him was obviously something that Bobby wanted to avoid. But on the other hand, he was clearly tempted by what John was saying.

John decided to tip the scales in his favour. "How about this? I take most of the blame; tell the Professor that it was all my idea..."

"It _is_ your idea," Bobby muttered.

"...and that I talked you into it..."

"You _are_ talking me into it," Bobby said.

"Really? Come on then." John gave Bobby a triumphant smirk and walked towards the door.

Bobby huffed even as he climbed to his feet. "That's not what I meant."

"Live a little, Drake." John glanced up the corridor to check that it was clear of the school's current cigar-chomping babysitter; although he was pretty sure that if Wolverine caught them trying to programme the Danger Room into the Playboy Mansion, he'd probably help just because he knew it would piss Summers off. 

Bobby caught up with him and, even though to an outsider it might look like he was sulking and dragging his heels, John could see that little spark of excitement he got whenever John talked him into breaking the rules. Underneath that entire do-gooder exterior was a little bit of a rebel just waiting to break out; something which John liked to exploit as often as he could.

They made their way through the corridors quickly, giving a quick wave to Jones who was in his usual night-time position in front of the TV, but came to a halt when they heard voices coming from the kitchen.

"I thought you said all the teachers were gone," Bobby hissed and they both crept closer to the kitchen door to peer in.

John barely managed to suppress an exasperated sigh when he saw that the kitchen's occupants were Rogue and Wolverine. Of course; who else did he expect to run into in the middle of the night but the exact two people he was currently trying to take Bobby's mind off? He felt Bobby stiffen beside him as they watched Rogue lean in close to say something to Wolverine with her glove-covered hand on his arm and her leg pressed against his. Rogue's back was to the door so she didn't know that they were there but when Bobby gave a small huff and began to storm off down the corridor, John saw Wolverine's eyes flicker to them for a moment. He was half expecting the man to demand to know why John and Bobby were sneaking about this late but, instead, he gave a small smile at Bobby's retreating back and then turned his attention back to Rogue.

Interesting. John hadn't been lying when he said that he didn't think that Wolverine reciprocated Rogue's feelings for him but he was clearly pleased to be driving a wedge between Rogue and Bobby nonetheless. He wondered if perhaps Wolverine had taken a more paternal attitude to Rogue; it would explain why he didn't like her having a boyfriend but it would definitely throw a spanner in her seduction plans. 

John decided that he'd have to think on that more later and silently jogged to catch up with Bobby who was halfway down the corridor already. They arrived outside the Professor's office and Bobby barely paused before entering the room. John flicked his lighter open creating a small flame floating above his hand to give them light (there was no need to draw attention to themselves by turning on the lights, even though the teachers were away) and then closed the door behind them. 

Bobby still hadn't said a word, instead he stood there with an expression like thunder and didn't seem to realise he was making the temperature in the room drop steadily.

"Ease up, Iceman," John told him as he walked over to the bust which sat on one of the bookshelves. "Some of us don't cope with the cold as well as you do."

Bobby startled at that and sent John a brief, apologetic look before his expression hardened again. The temperature did rise enough to stop John's breath from fogging though. 

John put his free hand on the bust, feeling that it was attached to the shelf, and turned it once in a clockwise direction and then back in a counter clock direction two times. There was a loud click on the other side of the room and a painting on the wall swung open to reveal that it was actually a hidden safe.

"What...how did you know about that?" Bobby's mouth was hanging open in surprise, his anger at his girlfriend forgotten for the moment.

John nodded towards the window which revealed the darkened gardens. "I used to sit in that tree when I first got here. It made a good hiding spot, you know?"

Bobby nodded, no doubt remembering John's tendency to lash out then run away when he was still new at the school. He'd been angry, definitely not in control of his powers and didn't trust anyone, let alone all these other freaks who had known each other for a long time and were all pretty cliquey. He'd also been convinced that the Professor was going to track down his father and let him know that they'd found his runaway son so John was also casing the place for the fastest escape routes; not that he'd ever mentioned that bit to anyone.

"I once saw the Professor having a meeting with McCoy," John continued even as he began to rifle through the contents of the safe. "McCoy was clearly upset about something and the Professor opened the safe to give him something from it. I remember thinking that it was so cool, like something out of a Bond movie."

"This was before you'd been downstairs then?" Bobby asked wryly and John sent him an amused look.

"Downstairs isn't like Bond, it's more like...Star Trek," John informed him. "But, yes, it was before I took a trip down there."

'Downstairs' was used to describe all the lower than ground levels of the school. It was where Cerebro, the Danger Room and the labs were kept, as well as the X-Men's jet, and it was all minimalist and shiny chrome. It had become a bit of a rule that students had to be at the school for at least a year before they were given a tour of downstairs - unless they suffered some kind of medical emergency and needed to visit Dr Grey's lab. Or they needed to be isolated due to losing control over their powers, which was actually the reason that John had only been at the school for three months before he'd been taken downstairs. 

Right at the back of the cabinet was a bottle of brandy which looked like it was very old and very expensive but it was still an odd thing to keep in a safe; John wondered if its presence in there was more to do with the tag attached to it but whatever it said, it was written in German and John couldn't read it. With a shrug, he moved on.

"How do you know it was the Danger Room code that the Professor gave to Hank?" Bobby asked.

"It wasn't," John replied. "He gave him a small wooden box and then McCoy took a syringe of something out of it."

"Weird," Bobby said which was exactly what John had thought when he'd originally watched that exchange. "Wait...so you don't actually know that the code is in the safe?"

"Where else is he going to put it?" John looked at Bobby over his shoulder.

"Uh...in his head?" Bobby said. 

John made a show of rolling his eyes. "Remember when Storm gave us that lesson on World War II and used the Danger Room? Did you see how long the code she had to type in was? So think about how often they have to change it just for basic security and then remember the fact that the Professor is really old. There's no way that he's always going to remember every new code."

Bobby scoffed. "He's the Professor. He's the most powerful telepath in the world. I think he can remember a password, John."

"Fine, I overheard him tell Wolverine the new code was in the safe if he wanted to use the room to meditate. Happy?" John narrowed his eyes at Bobby. "I'm still taking credit for knowing where the safe is though."

Bobby snickered behind him and John shook his head; at least he'd stopped sulking.

John hit the jackpot on the third folder he checked and quickly scribbled the code onto the back of an old receipt which he found in his pocket. He closed the safe and made sure that nothing looked out of place before Bobby reopened the office door and John extinguished the flame above his hand. The two of them were headed towards the elevator when Jones suddenly emerged from the rec room; his eyes looked huge behind those thick glasses he wore.

"Did you just hear anything strange?" he asked them and John and Bobby looked at each other.

"Like what?" Bobby asked at the same time as they heard a soft thud coming from above them.

It could've been another student out of bed but John didn't think so. Now that Jones had pointed it out, something just didn't feel right all of a sudden. Obviously, Bobby thought the same thing because he iced his hands at the exact instant as John used his lighter to make another flame around his own hands.

But before they could even take a step the front door silently swung open, revealing a couple of men dressed in black with big guns. Bobby and John raised their hands and twin streams of ice and flame went shooting at the two men.

"Get behind us," Bobby shouted at Jones but the order was barely out of his mouth before he froze in place and then suddenly slumped to the floor.

A quick glance down revealed a needle in the back of Bobby's neck and when John spun around he could see some more men with guns stealthily moving down the stairs behind them.

"Shit!" John swore and automatically ducked, extinguishing the flames so that he could grab Jones and pull him down too. 

There were a couple soft taps and two needles were suddenly imbedded in the wood where John and Jones had been standing. They both dived into the rec room and out of the line of fire but there was nowhere they could go from there; they were trapped. And what was wrong with Bobby? He was just unconscious, right? He had to be; they wouldn't...except they probably would. Strange men dressed like some kind of special ops soldiers from the movies, invading a school full of mutants in the middle of the night? They probably _were_ there to kill them all.

"Who are they? Jones whispered, his voice shaking.

John shook his head. "I don't know but we need to alert everyone else. We need to let Wolverine know what's happening."

Jones took a shaky breath. "How?"

"We make a whole lot of noise," John told him and lit up his hands once more. "And let's take a couple of these fuckers down at the same time."

He hugged the wall next to the doorway and motioned for Jones to move across to one of the many bookshelves lining the walls. There was the tiniest squeak of a shoe on wooden floor and John let the flames over his hands expand and rush forward, right into the face of the soldier creeping into the room. The soldier let out an anguished scream and John yelled,

"Now, Jones!"

Jones immediately pushed everything, including what was probably some hideously expensive vase, off the shelf and onto the floor where it all crashed and smashed loudly. The soldier that John had burned was dragged back out of the room by another and John followed, yelling at the top of his voice with both hands held in front of him and sending a surge of fire at every soldier he could see. Behind him, Jones was continuing his path of destruction through the rec room, making as much noise as he could and it seemed to be working because John could start to hear the sound of shouts and of bare feet running through the corridors above them and also Wolverine began yelling obscenities from the kitchen. Unfortunately that was immediately followed by the sound of gunfire, actual fucking _gunfire_ , and Rogue screaming something. 

John's fire seemed to be holding back the soldiers in the corridor and he even had a brief moment where he thought that the soldiers would turn tail and run now that the entire school was awake. Then he felt a short sharp pain of a needle hitting the calf of his leg and immediately he started to feel dizzy. His fire began to splutter before dying completely as John's legs gave way and the world turned black.

The next thing John registered was the pounding inside his head and he moaned, rolling to the side and trying to get his arms to coordinate enough that he could clutch at his head with his hands. Then he noticed was the cold seeping into his clothes from the stone floor that he was laying on.

"Johnny?"

A cool hand pressed against his forehead and even though it didn't help with shivers currently running through his body, it did wonders for the headache. John forced his eyes open and looked up at Bobby who was crouched over him with a worried expression on his face.

"Tell me that I feel this bad because of a nightmare." John's voice was scratchy and he had to cough a few times.

"I wish I could," Bobby replied.

His hand slipped from John's forehead to his arm and he heaved John up until they were both leaning against an old stone brick wall. Almost immediately a small, blonde mutant dived into Bobby's lap and hid her face in his chest while Bobby stroked her back. 

John lifted his hand to run it through his hair, a nervous gesture that he could never help making, and frowned when he spotted a metal cuff around his wrist. Inspecting it, he discovered that it was snug against his skin and no amount of tugging would get it to move. Apart from a hairline crack where the cuff closed, the metal was entirely smooth and John had no idea how it would come off. A quick glance at Bobby revealed that he was also wearing a cuff, as was the little girl in his lap. Weird.

His eyes had finally adjusted to the dim light in the cell; because that's where they were, some weird, round, stone cell. It was like something out of medieval days, like they'd been locked in a tower or some such shit. There were eight of them in the room but there was no telling how many had been taken from the school; the entire student body could be spread out between a load of different rooms for all John knew. 

His eyes met Jones' and he winced. "Sorry, kid."

Jones shrugged, obviously trying to be brave despite the nervous blinking giving him away. "You tried. And we helped the rest of the school escape them."

Jones obviously hadn't realised that there may be other cells in this place and John didn't want to dissuade him of that now so he just nodded at him. He couldn't help but glance at Bobby who looked as worried as John felt.

"Okay, as nice as this vacation's been, it's time to get out of here," John declared and reached into his pocket, cursing when he discovered that his lighter wasn't in there. He must've dropped it when he passed out.

"John..." Bobby started but John ignored him. 

Instead he reached into his sock to pull free the spare bic he always kept there. It was a habit from his life before joining the school and one that John was suddenly very glad that he hadn't grown out of.

"John!" Bobby was getting more insistent but John was busy pulling the little bits off fluff off the wheel of the lighter. 

That was the problem with these cheap pieces of shit in comparison to his zippo, if anything got into the mechanism then they tended to break.

"John!" Bobby yelled

"What?!" John yelled back at the same time as he lit the lighter.

Nothing happened. The flame was there but John couldn't feel the familiar rush through his body as every fibre of his being reached out for that fire and made it his.

"Our powers don't work," Bobby told him, his voice now gentled as he no doubt recognised the spark of fear in John when he couldn't manipulate that flame. He held up his left hand, and nodded at the cuff. "We think that this is blocking them somehow."

Relief flooded through John at the idea that his power was just being dampened and wasn't gone for good. A small voice at the back of his head pointed out that Bobby was just hypothesising but John ruthlessly quashed that voice.

Jubilee picked up a small stone from the floor and threw it towards the heavy duty steel door. John jumped as electricity flared around the stone when it hit an invisible barrier just in front of the door.

"Even if our powers were working, we'd still have to find a way past that," she told John. 

John scanned the room for another option. The cell itself was quite small, too small for the eight of them, to be honest; it was going to be interesting if they were here long enough to have to sleep because the only way John could see that being possible is if they piled on top of each other. What the cell lacked in floor space, it made up for with height which really added to the tower feel. Instead of a ceiling there were bars and, as John studied them, he could see shadows of people passing by up there.

"We're underground?" He asked.

"We seem to be," Jubilee replied. 

Christ, they weren't in a tower; they were at the bottom of a fucking well. At least it appeared to be an _indoor_ well so they weren't in danger of it filling if it started to rain. He leaned back against the wall again and sighed; there didn't seem to be a way out, not until someone opened the door. 

"The X-Men will come for us," Artie suddenly piped up. "I know they will."

"Of course, they'll come for us," Bobby said with a smile.

John had known Bobby long enough to see that the smile was strained. 

"Do you know where they went tonight?" John asked Bobby quietly, so that the others didn't hear.

Bobby glanced down at the kid in his lap but she wasn't paying any attention to the conversation. She was staring into space and actually seemed to be in shock now that John was paying attention to her. She was one of a set of identical triplets, telepaths if he remembered correctly, who were part of the youngest class; the Cuckoo Triplets. No wonder she was clinging to Bobby so hard, she was just a kid and she had to be terrified without her sisters or her gift.

"Scott went with the Professor to see Magneto," Bobby replied in a whisper. "But I don't know where the girls went."

John slowly nodded as he thought. "They waited until most of the grown-ups were gone which means that they wanted _us_ ; the students and not the X-Men. And we were brought here which means that they want us alive."

"Why?" Bobby asked. "Not that I'm not grateful that we're still alive but what do they want with us?"

"It could be a ransom situation." Jubilee dropped down to sit in front of them, obviously not happy with being kept out of their hushed conversation. "We could be hostages until Professor Xavier pays them what they want."

"It's a lot of effort to go to for some money," Bobby pointed out.

"Unless they don't want money," John mused. "The Professor is crazy powerful, they might want to make him use his powers for them."

"What are you all talking about?"

John glanced up to see Cypher standing with his hands on his hips glaring at them.

"Are you talking about how to get out of here?" Siryn looked over from where she was sitting with her arms wrapped around her knees.

"No, they're discussing why we were captured," Jones said. "Aren't you? You don't need to hide things from us. I know that we're younger than you but we're in this mess too."

Jones had a point. They were trying to shelter the younger kids but that was ultimately pointless because they were already upset just being here. 

"Okay," John said. "You're right and we'll be stronger if we all band together anyway. No more hiding stuff from you."

Immediately, Jones, Cypher, Artie and Siryn scrambled to sit with them rather than staying on the other side of the cell. 

John had expected Bobby to argue against his decision but instead he gave John an approving look. It confused John a little until he noticed that the little group were all touching each other in some way; Artie and Jones' shoulders were pressed together, Cypher stretched his legs out so that one of her feet touched Jubilee's ankle, Siryn had wedged herself between John and Jubilee, her arms brushing against both of them and Cypher's presence beside Bobby had caused Bobby to shuffle closer to John so that their thighs were touching. Apparently the little ones had taken the term 'band together' a bit literally and were using it to take comfort from each other. 

"So what do you think that they're trying to get the Professor to do?" Jubilee asked and everyone began to throw out ideas, each one getting more and more outlandish. 

By the time there was a noise at the door, the cold had driven the group even closer as a way of sharing body heat. Bobby had given Artie his over shirt and John had wrapped Siryn in his hoodie. Thanks to their intended holographic expedition, John and Bobby were the only ones who were fully dressed; the others were all in pyjamas and nightdresses. Siryn and Artie didn't even have socks or slippers on.

At the sound of the door unlocking, they all turned to stare in that direction with trepidation but when the door swung open they slumped with relief.

"Cyclops." Bobby grinned and climbed to his feet, still holding the little Cuckoo to his chest. "About time."

Instead of grinning back or replying with a quip of his own, Cyclops just studied them impassively from the doorway for a long moment. He pointed a finger at Bobby and then Siryn.

"You and you; come with me."

"Scott?" Bobby frowned at him. "What's wrong?"

Cyclops just stared at him. "You will both come with me. Don't try to disobey."

John had a sinking feeling in his stomach. Scott Summers was never one to show much emotion but this was a new level. Cyclops' face was blank and even his voice sounded too flat. He and Bobby shared a quick look and Bobby passed the little Cuckoo to Jubilee before he and John stepped a little closer to Cyclops. 

"Why do want them to leave with you?" John asked.

Instead of answering, Cyclops touched the side of his visor and sent a blast at Cypher.

Jubilee, Siryn and the Cuckoo screamed. Artie and Jones shouted in surprise and Cypher just dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. He was still breathing so the blast had clearly been on the lowest setting but he was out for the count.

"Shit!" Bobby immediately crouched down beside Cypher to make sure that he was okay but John stayed standing and shouted at Scott.

"What the fuck, man? He's one of us!"

Cyclops stared at him impassively. "That was a warning. She and he are to come with me. Right now!" He pointed at Bobby and Siryn again.

Siryn let out a terrified sob and John stepped in front of her so that he shielded her from Cyclops. 

"No," John said. "You want to take someone then you can take me. Leave her alone."

Cyclops turned his head slightly to the left, which is when John realised that there was someone else outside the cell that he was listening to.

"Fine," Cyclops told John and motioned towards the door.

John reached behind him and quickly squeezed Siryn's hand to try and comfort her. "Look after my hoodie; I'll be back for it soon."

Jubilee gave him a tremulous smile, put her arm around Siryn and hugged the now sobbing Cuckoo closer. John pasted his trademark smirk on his face and gave them all a wink to let them know that he wasn't too concerned. Of course, that wasn't true. His stomach was tying itself up in knots because if whoever was in charge of all this could get to Cyclops this easily then the rest of them didn't stand a chance.

Cyclops stopped John and Bobby just before the force field before nodding to whoever it was outside the door. The force field dropped with a clearly visible shimmer then Cyclops indicated them forward before the shimmer appeared again to show the field was activated once more.

There were four soldiers waiting outside the room, which surprised John; he'd been expecting someone more important given the way Cyclops had deferred to them. Maybe whatever brainwashing or hypnotism he'd been put under had just made him _everyone's_ bitch. 

"What did they do to you, Scott?" Bobby asked the man that he'd always considered a surrogate older brother.

Cyclops didn't answer, just kept walking them up several flights of stairs and along long corridors until John had completely lost his sense of direction. 

Finally they were pushed into a room filled with medical equipment and everything in John screamed at him to run. But Cyclops already had a bruising hold on his arm while one of the soldiers had taken hold of Bobby. 

"Shit! Cyclops, man; if you're in there you need to stop this," John implored his teacher. "You can't let them do this to us! You're supposed to protect us, not help them!"

Again, Cyclops remained silent and dragged John towards one of the metal beds in the centre of the room. John began to struggle as hard as he could, kicking and hitting at Cyclops while trying to twist out of his grip but none of it seemed to have any effect - or if it did, Cyclops was brainwashed enough not to show it. 

"Hey! Whoa, stop a second!" 

Cyclops came to a halt as another soldier jogged into the room. He stopped in front of them and John struggled even more at the sight of the bandages covering half of the soldier's face. It was the guy he'd burned back at the mansion. 

"Not so powerful now, are you?" The soldier hissed at him. "See what you did to me you fucking mutant freak?"

Strangely the insult actually calmed John down a little. That was something he was used to and knew how to deal with. 

He stopped struggling, gave the soldier his best smirk and said, "Looks like an improvement to me."

John could practically hear the groan Bobby should have given at John making smartass comments in inappropriate situations again but Bobby was too busy fighting against the soldiers pushing him towards the second metal bed. 

The burned soldier blinked in surprise at John's comment, he'd obviously expected John to cower in fear rather than snark at him. Then his face darkened in anger and he punched John in the stomach. 

John doubled up as much as he could with the hold Cyclops still had on him, and his breath left his body with a loud 'oof'. The soldier grabbed a handful of John's hair and yanked his head back up painfully, causing John's eyes to water.

"They're gonna make you scream, _mutant_." The soldier practically spat the last word. "They're gonna cut you open; peel you back like a frog in biology class. Then they're gonna take every last bit of that power out of you, leaving you an empty husk. _Then_ , they're gonna give you to me and I am gonna make you pay for what you did to me."

John started to shake and had to fight back his nausea at the soldier's words. Who the fuck were these people? How could they justify doing this to other people, let alone kids?

This time when Cyclops dragged him towards the bed, John fought so hard that another couple of soldiers rushed forward to help hold him still. He shouted and yelled every obscenity that he could think of as he was lifted onto the bed and then strapped into place until he couldn't move his body even one inch. Finally a strap wrapped across his forehead, pinning even his head to the bed, and a second one went across his mouth, gagging him. John could only move his eyes and so he stared helplessly at Bobby, strapped exactly the same way on the bed beside his, rather than look at the laughing faces of the soldiers around them. 

Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, a few more people entered the room. They didn't look like doctors but then the soldier had never specified that whoever 'they' were had medical training. The group came to stand between the two beds. A short, chubby bearded man with more than a touch of military bearing was studying a bunch of folders in his hands. He glanced at John and gave him a friendly smile which was absolutely terrifying in this situation.

"The records recovered at your school have proven quite helpful in creating a registry of exactly what creatures are residing there and what they can do," he told John and Bobby conversationally before looking back down at the folders. "For example, this here is St. John Allerdyce's file.” He lifted the topmost folder so that John could see a photo of himself clipped to school reports. “You can manipulate fire...but not create it, which is a little disappointing. No matter, I'm sure that we can still glean a lot of information in studying you."

"Studying?" One of the others in the group looked a little surprised. "Do we have time for that?"

The bearded man waved a hand dismissively. "The so-called X-Men have no idea who stormed the school, nor where to start looking for the missing mutants."

"What about Project X?" another asked. 

"The Wolverine is well and truly in hand. He's locked down and there'll be no escaping; not even for him," the bearded man replied and John felt another jolt of despair.

They'd taken Wolverine too. 

John looked back over at Bobby while the group of people continued to talk as if they weren't even there. Bobby’s eyes were wide with terror and that caused something to harden inside of John. He may never been in this exact situation but he'd had many times of feeling helpless to stop oncoming pain and misery. He'd learned from his mother, early on, that giving in to despair wasn't the answer so these psychos could fuck right off! They weren't going to give these bastards the satisfaction of giving in and losing hope. Despite John's best efforts Bobby had always been able to read John's emotions in a way that no one else could and John counted on that now. A few long seconds of staring at each other passed before Bobby's expression began to change from terrified to determined and John knew that his message had been received. 

Oblivious to the silent conversation happening in front of him the bearded man looked down at John again. 

"Let's start," he said before stepping back and allowing a woman to move closer to John. 

Someone started to cut John's t-shirt away but he couldn't take his eyes off the woman and the tray of surgical blades she held in her hands. There was no injection, no anaesthesia to numb him and when she made that first incision, John started to scream behind his gag.

*****

This time when John woke up, he was hit with an almost overwhelming wave of pain. Every part of him hurt, from the muscles which had strained against his bindings to the deep cuts on his torso. He let out a small whimper before he could stop himself.

"John?" There was a slightly familiar voice coming from nearby. "Oh my god, I think he's waking up. John? Can you hear me?"

John tried to reply but the action hurt his throat which felt raw from all the screaming and he began coughing instead. A hand slid behind his head and lifted it slightly then a cup was placed against his lips. John drank the cold water eagerly; every sip was soothing on his throat.

"Easy," the voice said as John took too big a sip. "Drink it slowly. That's it."

When he'd had enough John pulled his head back from the cup slightly and the hand behind his head lowered it again, although this time it was onto a much softer surface than before. It took a bit of effort but John managed to open his eyes and once the initial blurriness faded, he realised that his head was pillowed on Siryn's lap. She stroked her hand over his forehead and tried to smile at him but she was obviously too upset to pull it off. 

"You're back with us," she said in that familiar voice. "We've got you."

"Bobby?" John managed to croak.

Siryn nodded her head to one side as she told him. "He hasn't woken up yet. You were brought back first."

John turned his head to look and inhaled sharply as he saw the state his best friend was in. His skin looked pale and sickly with dark bruises beneath his eyes. His t-shirt was missing, obviously cut away the same as John's had been, revealing the thick bandages wrapped around his torso and biceps but some blood had soaked through them to stain the stone floor beneath him. John didn't even need to look to know that he looked just as bad; no wonder Siryn was so upset. 

“Cypher?” He tried next, remembering the blast Cyclops had hit him with.

“Doug’s fine,” Siryn replied. “He’s got a nasty bruise and a bump on his head but apart from that he’s okay.”

Exhaustion was starting to overtake him but John fought it and tried to sit up. Siryn quickly realised what he was doing and slid an arm beneath his shoulders while Jones suddenly materialised next to them and mirrored Siryn's actions on the other side. Between them they gently got John up into a sitting position then Siryn quickly manoeuvred herself so that she sat behind John, leaning on the wall so that he could lean back against her rather than the hard stones. While John shut his eyes and breathed through the pain that simple action had brought him, he thought about the fact that Siryn seemed to have appointed herself his nurse. Probably as a way of thanking him for taking her place. He blindly scrabbled for her hand and squeezed it to let her know that he appreciated it. 

When the pain was finally back to manageable levels John reopened his eyes and looked around their little cell. He had to give a small smile when he realised the kids had deliberately placed themselves between John and Bobby and the door as if to protect them.

"Are you..." Jubilee trailed off clearly not sure how to end that question. 

John obviously wasn't okay and he was definitely hurt.

"I'll be fine," he told her anyway. "Just give me a minute and I'll be ready to take on the world again."

She snorted and rolled her eyes. "I see that they've apparently made you delusional, Pyro."

John raised an eyebrow and properly studied Jubilee for the first time. The school wasn't that big so obviously he knew who she was, but she was a year younger than him and Bobby which made a big difference for some reason that he couldn't remember right now. So, yeah, he knew Jubilation Lee; the girl who always wore yellow and could create sparks of energy with her fingertips. But he didn't know that she was like him. He'd been too worried to see it earlier; when she all but demanded to be added to his and Bobby's conversation with a look on her face that dared them to say 'no'. But now he recognised that tone of her voice very well, it was the one that he used when he was scared or out of his depth; it was the cloak of sarcasm and mockery that he’d worn all too often before he’d joined the school - and still tended to wear when he needed to. He wondered how bad Jubilee’s life had been before Xavier found her.

A quiet moan from Bobby startled John out of his contemplation of Jubilee. He looked over at his friend who was just starting to wake up. Jones and Artie moved to help him while Jubilee got some water from a jug that John had only just noticed. He startled a second time when something brushed his hand. He looked to the other side of him to see that the little Cuckoo had quietly made her way from where she’d been cuddled into Jubilee to now sit next beside him. He lifted his arm and she quickly darted closer, snuggling into his side and carefully avoiding any clearly injured areas.

John wracked his mind for her name. He bet that Bobby knew it but Bobby was still incoherent.

“Phoebe?” John tried because that was ringing a bell and the girl looked up at him with wide eyes.

“Irma,” she said and everyone, except Bobby, looked at her in shock as she finally spoke. “Phoebe made it to the tunnel with Celeste.”

“The tunnels at the school?” John asked.

All the kids knew about the hidden tunnels placed at strategic points around the mansion because they got drilled on how to use them the same way they had fire drills. Xavier had known that one day people would find out just how ‘gifted’ his students really were and that some may attack them. Of course, in all those drills, the teachers raised the alarm and the kids could hear the recorded noise of an approaching mob coming from outside. They hadn’t been shown what to do if highly trained stealth soldiers attacked while the teachers were out playing superhero.

Irma was nodding. “We were running to the tunnel next to the library. Phoebe and Celeste made it but I fell. Then I woke up here and I can’t hear them anymore.”

John stroked her hair as her bottom lip began to wobble. “If your sisters made it to the tunnel then I'm pretty sure that they’re safe. And the only reason that you can’t hear them is because of our fancy new bracelets. When we get them off, you’ll be able to hear them again.”

“The tunnel by the library is the best protected one, pumpkin,” Siryn added. “Nothing’s going to get to them in there.”

Irma seemed to accept that and cuddled into John once more.

John tilted his head to look up at Siryn. “Pumpkin?”

She shrugged, careful not to jostle him too much. “It’s what my mum called me when I was upset about something.”

He tugged at her copper coloured hair with his free hand. “Suits you, Siryn.”

“Theresa,” she said. “That’s my real name.”

“That suits you too,” he told her.

“John?”

John looked away from Siryn... _Theresa’s_ shy smile to Bobby who was trying to focus on everyone. “Right here, Drake. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

Jones and Cypher helped Bobby sit up a little until he was leaning against Doug, the same way that John was leaning against Theresa. Knowing exactly how much pain that caused, even if he’d eventually feel better for it, John waited patiently for Bobby to regain his bearings. His eyes fell on that jug of water again and the tray of food beside it.

“When did that arrive?” he asked Theresa, pointing at the tray.

“They pushed it in through the field when they brought you and Bobby back,” she told him. “But we haven’t touched it besides having a little water each.”

John frowned. “Why not? Aren’t you hungry?”

“Kind of,” Theresa admitted. “But we don’t know what’s in it. Also, they brought that with it.”

She pointed at a metal bucket which had been shoved up against the wall as if no one wanted to look at it. John blamed the fact that he was still a bit groggy for why he didn’t immediately understand what it meant and then he gave a groan of realization. It was their toilet. Because scaring them half to death and experimenting on them wasn’t enough, they had to humiliate them too?

“If you’re hungry then eat,” John said, making sure to look each one of them in the eye. “We’ve no idea how often they’re going to feed us and we need to keep our strength up. As for the bucket, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it but we’ll all give you as much privacy as we can and no one here is going to make fun of you or ever mention it outside of this cell.”

The girls especially looked relieved at the promise of at least a facade of privacy. John turned back to Bobby and found that not only were his eyes open but that he was looking at John with that odd expression again; approval mixed with something John didn’t really recognise. 

“Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty,” John drawled to cover how much that look unsettled him.

Bobby smiled. “I’ll accept the Beauty part because I have to be looking better than you, Johnny.”

John snorted. “You’d be surprised, Princess.”

Something in John relaxed a little when Bobby fell easily into their usual banter and he could admit, if only to himself, how worried he’d been that Bobby wouldn’t wake up at all or that he’d be permanently injured somehow. 

“So what did you see out there?” Jubilee suddenly burst out; clearly she’d been holding that in since John woke up. “Did you learn anything about where we are?”

“Not much,” John admitted. “Just that this place is huge. They walked us down so many corridors.”

“I think that we’re somewhere really cold,” Bobby said, looking thoughtful. “I spotted a couple of soldiers wearing winter coats.”

John nodded as he remembered that too. “Right; they looked like they were getting ready to go outside. And there were no windows. Anywhere. So I think the whole place might be underground not just this bit of it.”

“Did you hear anything about any of the other kids?” Artie asked, sitting cross legged next to Bobby and Doug after grabbing some bread from the tray and handing it to them.

John and Bobby glanced at each other, unsure of how to answer that.

“Nuh huh!” Jubilee said, pointing at each of them in turn. “I thought we’d agreed not to hide anything from each other.”

Bobby sighed. “We know that they caught Wolverine. They’ve got him locked up here somewhere but I don’t know where.”

“Fuck!” Jones swore and Bobby looked at him in shock while John smothered a chuckle at Bobby’s scandalised expression, as if he hadn’t heard John curse six ways from Sunday.

“On the plus side, based on what Irma said, I think everyone else made it to the tunnels,” John told them. “I’m pretty sure that we were the only ones that got caught.”

John supposed the fact that everyone looked a little relieved at that was testament to Xavier’s school and they way they were taught to take care of each other. 

“Did Cyclops tell you anything?” Artie asked and John automatically tensed up as he remembered the way Cyclops had shoved him onto that bed.

He knew that Scott was being controlled somehow which was why John had mentally separated Scott Summers the teacher from Cyclops the brainwashed X-Man. But he knew that if they all somehow managed to get out of here, he’d be flinching away from Scott for a long time. 

“No, he didn’t say anything,” Bobby answered Artie’s question in a tight voice and when John looked at him, he saw barely banked anger in Bobby’s whole demeanour and knew that he wasn’t the only one struggling with that particular issue. 

Doug could probably be added to that club as well, after that blast he took, because his hands had started to visibly shake as they spoke. Artie spotted this too and grabbed hold of one of Doug’s hands, squeezing it as if in apology from bringing Cyclops up at all. 

Jubilee watched all of this with her fingers drumming nervously against her leg. 

“What is it?” John asked her.

She dropped her head for a moment and then looked right at him and Bobby as she asked. “What about the Professor? Yesterday you said that Cyclops had gone somewhere with the Professor, I heard you.”

John stared at her in shock. Partly because he hadn’t realised that he and Bobby had been gone for a whole day but mostly because she was right; if Scott was here, where the hell was the Professor?

“He can’t be here, we’d know,” Bobby said, the expression on his face showing that he hadn’t thought of that either.

“Unless they put a bracelet on him too,” Theresa pointed out quietly. 

“No,” Bobby insisted. “He’s too strong for them to work on him.”

“What about what they’ve done to...to Cyclops?” Doug stumbled over his name and Bobby grabbed the hand that Artie wasn’t holding. 

John shook his head. “I don’t know if he’s too strong for the bracelets but the Professor’s definitely too strong to be brainwashed like that.”

“His mind is like a fortress,” Irma suddenly piped up. “Even the three of us couldn’t break through and we really tried.”

Everyone seemed to accept that, even though that traitorous voice in John’s head piped up again to point out that the triplets may not have been able to break through because they were just kids. John shook his head to clear it, he couldn’t worry about the Professor right now; he had to worry about himself, Bobby and the group of kids they’d found themselves responsible for. 

Tiredness began to overcome all of them; John and Bobby because they were recovering and the others because they'd apparently stayed up all night until John and Bobby were returned to them. Jubilee helped Siryn and Irma get John to lay back down on the floor while the boys did the same with Bobby. Jones said that he'd keep watch because he didn't sleep anyway but that wasn't exactly true; Jones did stay awake for a week or two at a time but then he'd crash quite spectacularly and sleep solidly for at least two days. They couldn't afford for Jones to have, what the kids at the school called, his 'hibernation days' while they were stuck here so Bobby encouraged him to try to get some sleep. After all, if anyone did show up at the cell, they were all powerless to do anything about it anyway. 

John’s earlier observation about the cell hadn’t been quite right, they didn’t need to pile up in order to all lie on the floor simultaneously but they did all end up tangled together; which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. When they were all settled, John could feel Jones and Jubilee curled up behind him while Irma and Theresa burrowed into the gap between John and Bobby. Doug and Artie were behind Bobby and Artie was already letting out soft snores which were more soothing than annoying. 

Bobby was watching John. It wasn’t that strange look from earlier but more like he was trying to memorise John’s face in case the worst should happen after they woke and John sort of knew how he felt. He gently shifted his arm, which was pillowed under Irma’s head, just enough that he could reach across the small gap and hold his hand out to Bobby. Bobby had to shift his arm from under Theresa too but he grabbed on to John’s hand and they fell asleep like that. 

It was hard to keep track of time so John didn’t know if it was the next day when he woke up or if it was just later the same day. Either way, he felt better than the last time he’d been awake. Not all mutants had Logan’s near legendary accelerated healing but a lot of them did heal slightly faster than humans; John and Bobby among them. The incisions on his chest, sides and arms were still pretty painful but his muscles no longer screamed in protest when he moved. His appetite had also returned so the first thing John did after smoothly manoeuvring his way out from under Jones (who had fallen asleep after all) and the girls was to pad across the room to the tray of food. 

There was some stale-looking bread and a canister filled with some kind of gloop that could be soup or could be porridge. John’s stomach grumbled at him again so he shrugged to himself and poured some of the gloop into a bowl and grabbed a bit of bread before sitting down, just out of reach of others, to eat it. It tasted as bad as it looked but at least it was food. 

“Don’t be a food hog,” came a hushed demand from across the room and John looked up to see Bobby trying to get out from under his group of kids, far less smoothly than John had because Bobby was a natural klutz at times, but he was eventually successful.

“I wouldn’t exactly call this food,” John whispered back when Bobby reached him.

He pulled a face as he stared into John’s bowl. “Is that...gruel?”

John huffed in amusement. “Just close your eyes and pretend its Storm’s chicken stew, Princess.”

“Yeah, that nickname’s going to get old really quick,” Bobby muttered as he poured himself a bowlful of the gloop. 

“I think it suits you,” John told him.

Bobby just rolled his eyes and then gingerly sat beside John, keeping one arm wrapped around his torso as he did. It didn’t escape John’s notice that Bobby had sat close enough that they were pressed together all along one side but found that it really didn’t bother him. It seemed that it wasn’t just the kids who needed touch for comfort. 

They sat in silence as they finished off the gloop before starting on the slightly better tasting stale bread. 

“That was disgusting,” Bobby whispered as he placed his bowl on the floor beside him. 

“I’ve had worse,” John said.

Bobby looked at him curiously as he always did when John alluded to his past. He already knew some of it, more than anyone else besides the Professor, and never judged him which John had always appreciated. That didn’t mean that John would ever tell him all of it though; some things were never meant to be talked about. 

“Do you really think that the Professor’s here?” Bobby asked him instead of enquiring about what foodstuffs John had eaten that could possibly be worse than the gloop. 

“It makes sense,” John replied. “Why would they take Cyclops and leave the Professor? If he is here then at least it means one good thing.”

Bobby frowned. “What?”

“It means the X-Men will be working even harder to try and find us,” John pointed out. 

“Without using Cerebro though,” Bobby said then his face turned thoughtful. “Although Jean managed to use it that one time. Maybe she could again.”

John sighed and tilted his head back against the wall. “Then why hasn’t she?”

“I don’t know.” Bobby sounded just as tired as him.

“They’re going to come for two of the others next,” John said without moving his head to look at Bobby.

He felt Bobby grab his hand though and he squeezed back. 

“We won’t let them,” Bobby said and John was proud of him when there was only a slight quiver in his voice. 

“No we won’t,” he agreed. 

It was a long time before the soldiers arrived to take the next pair. In fact nobody came until the next time the group had fallen asleep, all tangled in each other once again after a long day of trying to keep each other’s spirits up and all of them carefully avoiding the main question they all had: where were the X-Men?

The door opened with a loud clang which caused them all to startle awake. Cyclops pointed at Jubilee and Jones this time. They climbed to their feet with scared and yet resigned faces while Theresa comforted Irma who had quietly begun to weep on the floor. John stood up too, knowing without looking that Bobby was doing the same thing, and put an arm out to stop Jubilee and Jones from approaching the door. 

“You’re not fucking touching them, Cyclops,” Bobby spat and even through his rising terror of what he knew they were about to go through, John smirked at Bobby swearing. “You want to hurt someone then take us.”

“Not again!” Jubilee gasped from behind them but John and Bobby refused to look at her, standing firm in their decision. 

“You both need time to recover before the next round of testing,” Cyclops replied without emotion. “Those two are to come with me now.”

“Lets not be so hasty.” The soldier who John had burned stepped into the doorway beside Cyclops and John knew instantly that this was their ticket to taking Jubilee and Jones’ place. “If they want to volunteer, maybe we should take them up on that. After all it means that I’ll get my hands on the little firebug all the sooner.”

He grinned a malicious smile at John who bared his teeth right back.

“Well, lookie who it is, Bobby,” he drawled. “It’s our old friend, Blister Face. I did tell you all about that time I set his head on fire, didn’t I?”

“You sure did,” Bobby laughed.

Anyone with ears would know that it was forced and that he was just playing along with John’s impromptu plan but Blister Face was far too angry to realise that.

“You two punks are going to pay,” he near-growled at them. “Get your asses out here. Now! Before I shoot one of your little freak friends. And, believe me, there’s no tranquiliser darts in my gun this time.”

“No!” Irma sat up and wrapped her arms around John’s leg. “They’re going to hurt you again!”

With one eye on Blister Face and his gun, John crouched down and gave Irma a quick hug.

“Better they hurt us than any of you, Pumpkin,” he whispered into her hair. “But I need you to do something for me while I’m gone, okay? I need you to take care of the others for me. Make sure they eat and drink and sleep enough because me and Bobby will need you all to take care of us when we get back.”

Irma nodded against his neck and didn’t protest when he passed her into Doug’s waiting arms.

“Touching,” Blister Face sneered when John stood back up again. “Or it would be if you were actual kids instead of monsters with children’s faces.” He raised his gun and trained it on Jubilee. “You’ve got until the count to ten. One...two...three...”

John and Bobby had already reached the force field by the time he reached three but the bastard made them wait until he made it to nine before dropping the field and letting them out. 

John waited until the steel door had closed behind them before telling Blister Face, in his most conversational tone, “As soon as I get this bracelet off, I’m going to kill you.”

Blister Face and the other soldiers, except for Cyclops, looked at each other and laughed. Then Blister Face shoved the butt of his gun into John’s stomach, aggravating the still healing wounds he had there and causing him to drop to his knees. As soon as John was hit Bobby had immediately shouted and punched Blister Face right in the jaw, no doubt aggravating _his_ wounds, and knocking him onto his ass. The two remaining soldiers only paused for a second before they began punching and kicking Bobby, driving him to the ground until he curled up on the floor to try and protect himself from their assault. Meanwhile John was on his hands and knees, struggling to get his breath back and wondering at the strange feeling that had washed over him. It took a moment for him to recognise it for what it was; nostalgia. It had been a long time since he'd been hit that hard, although Blister Face had nothing on John's father in full drunken rage. John was planning to tell him that when he could speak again.

“Okay, that’s enough!” A voice came through a speaker mounted on the wall next to an old fashioned security camera. “Bring them to the lab _without_ any more damage or you will screw up the test results.”

Cyclops and the soldiers pulled John and Bobby back to their feet and shoved them along the corridor to the first flight of stairs where Blister Face quickly disappeared in another direction, no doubt to get his jaw seen to.

“Nice right hook,” John told Bobby who grinned back at him, his teeth stained red with the blood from his busted lip.

John thought that he’d never looked more beautiful. Then blinked because where the hell had _that_ thought come from?

Several flights of stairs and corridors later and John was trying to suppress the terror which was currently trying to claw its way out of his throat as they moved closer to the 'testing' room again. He looked around for something, anything, to distract him. That’s when his eyes fell on the box. He vaguely remembered them passing it last time but now it struck him as very odd. Why was there a big metal box in a small room off the corridor? A box which was roughly the size of a grown man and which had a very big and heavy looking bar keeping it locked; almost as if they were scared that whatever was inside might try to get out.

_"The Wolverine is well and truly in hand. He's locked down and there'll be no escaping; not even for him.”_

The words of the bearded man floated through John’s mind and he suddenly knew exactly what was in that box. He faked a stumble and doubled over, clutching his stomach where Blister Face had hit him with the gun. The entire group ground to a halt and before Cyclops could yank John forward again, he caught Bobby’s eye and nodded subtly towards the box. Bobby frowned and looked from John to the box and back to John again. Then he stiffened slightly and understanding dawned across his face as he snuck another look at the box. 

So they knew where Wolverine was being held. They just needed to figure out how to use that new information.

Despite his earlier promise to himself to stay calm this time, John couldn't help but start to struggle when they entered the lab again. This time though, Cyclops didn't push him towards the bed, instead he faltered a little and shook his head as if he was dizzy. Instantly Cyclops was pulled away from John and held in the grip of a couple of soldiers who'd been waiting in the room while the ones who had already strapped Bobby down grabbed John and completed the task of getting him onto the bed. 

The Bearded Man entered the room with his usual crowd of cronies but he walked straight up to Cyclops and pushed his head forward before removing a tiny glass bottle from his pocket and dripping a small amount of liquid onto the back of Cyclops' neck. Whatever that liquid was, it caused Cyclops to straighten up from the slight slump he'd been in and it visibly wiped away whatever emotion had been fighting to break free. Clearly that liquid was what was causing Cyclops to behave the way he had been and it apparently it only worked for a limited time. John tucked that away with the information about Wolverine's location as something to be studied later. 

In the meantime, the Bearded Man was approaching him and Bobby.

"You volunteered for some more testing, I understand," he grinned at them both, amusement written across his face. "It's always nice to meet a couple of young men so interested in helping scientific advancement. Perhaps that freak school of yours isn't so bad after all."

There was a smattering of laughter throughout the room but John ignored everyone and concentrated on Bobby again because the determination to see him and the kids again was the only thing that was going to get John through this. Bobby was staring right back at him and continued to do so until John's bed was rolled away and the new tests began. After that all John was aware of was the cold and then the pain.

John was shivering even before he was aware that he was awake again. 

"He needs heat," said a voice which was so hoarse that he only vaguely recognised it as Bobby's. "Everyone get in close to him and share as much of your body heat as you can. Don't worry about me right now."

John felt himself being manhandled up to lean against someone again and he felt so numb from the cold that he could barely feel the pain of that movement this time. As soon as he was settled, some kind of material was draped over his torso and then arms and legs wrapped around like he was surrounded by a couple of octopi.

"Christ, his lips are really blue," Doug said; his voice full of concern.

"S'new...f..f...fashion..." John got out passed his chattering teeth.

"Good to know that they didn't damage your usual snarkiness, Johnny," Bobby croaked and John thought that he smiled at him but he couldn't feel his face so he couldn't really tell. 

Once it felt a little like his eyelids had stopped being iced over, John opened them and looked down at the puppy pile of kids all around him, trying to keep him warm. He was apparently leaning against Jones this time with the hoodie that he'd loaned Theresa covering him. Irma and Jubilee were on either side of him, trying to get as much of themselves pressed against him as they could. Theresa and Doug were cuddled behind them; they each held one of John's hands between their own and were trying to rub heat back into them. Artie was sitting cross legged in front of him with John's feet tucked under his thighs, trying to warm them up, while his hands tried to rub warmth into John's legs. Their joint efforts were starting to work, _slowly_ , but he was definitely beginning to feel a little warmer. 

Bobby was sitting slightly away from the group, slouched against the wall. There was a thin sheen of perspiration covering him and peeking out from beneath the new bandages on his lower arms and covering most of his hands, the skin was angry red and blistered. John suddenly realised that while the bastards had tested John on his cold tolerance, they'd tested Bobby on his tolerance to heat. 

"I t...think this testing stuff i...i...is getting easier," John chattered and Bobby snorted, giving John an amused look just as John hoped he would. "W...what happened? Did a d...dragon attack your tower, P...Princess?"

Bobby flipped him off as well as he could when some of his fingers were bandaged up and the futility of the attempt made the rest of the group snicker. 

"Sure, about the same time that you decided to take a leisurely ice swim," Bobby shot back, entirely unconcerned by the laughter. 

In fact, knowing Bobby, he'd done it on purpose to try and cheer everyone up.

"A swim," Artie repeated and John braced himself for the inevitable questioning but Artie didn't do that; instead he just said, "That's explains why your hair was wet."

John gave an internal sigh of relief, glad that he didn't have to stick to his promise not to hide anything from them all. He really didn't want to go into the fact that the bed he'd been laying on had been submerged into a small pool that was more ice than water. How he'd been left there as the cold sunk into his very bones and that ice burned his skin in a way that it could only hurt someone with fire powers. 

He observed that Bobby's injuries were more localised so he had obviously gone through some other torment in the name of 'research'. He vaguely remembered some fucker using the word 'blowtorch' as they passed John's ice bath.

John wiggled his toes as the feeling returned to them and winced at the inevitable onset of pins and needles shooting from his feet up his legs. Then he frowned when he realised that those legs were covered with a different pair of pants than the jeans he'd been wearing when he left. He had a vague recollection of being stripped before the ice bath so his jeans must've been thrown in the garbage just as his t-shirt had previously. Speaking of which, he was also wearing a new top, which was an improvement on the topless look he'd been sporting after the first round of testing. The top was the same sickly green colour as the cotton pants and John realised that he was actually wearing a set of scrubs. He chuckled at the irony that he was dressed like a doctor while the so-called 'doctors' experimenting on him and Bobby looked more like office workers. Everyone looked at him in confusion but John just waved them off because it wasn't important enough to explain. 

"Want to try eating something?" Jubilee asked, turning her head to look at Bobby so that he knew he was included in that question. "They brought us more gloop."

John's name for whatever the hell it was that they were being fed had been accepted by the group because, as Jones pointed out, there wasn't really a better way to describe it.

"I'm not really hungry," John replied, pleased when the sentence came out without any more chattering. 

"Me either," Bobby said, his head and torso pressed back against the wall as if he could leech the cold from the stone into his overheated body.

By contrast, the warmth was definitely returning to John's frozen body, enough that a few of the kids began to pull away. Jones, Artie and Irma stayed where they were, still in physical contact, and John was glad that they did because while the warmth was returning, he definitely didn't feel _warm_ yet. 

"Did you learn anything new?" Jones asked in that soft manner of his and Bobby nodded.

"We know how they're controlling Cyclops," he said. "It's some kind of liquid that they're putting on the back of his neck. If I had to guess, I'd say that it gets absorbed through the skin and makes him susceptible to suggestion but it does wear off, we saw it start to do that."

"It actually wore off?" Jubilee asked.

"Just barely," Bobby replied. "They used the liquid on him again before he could really come back to his senses."

"So if we find a way to keep him away from the liquid then he'll go back to normal," Theresa mused. "That's useful to know."

John smiled at her. "Even more useful is the fact that we know where they're holding Wolverine."

"We _think_ we know," Bobby amended before everyone got too excited. 

"Oh, come on, Bobby!" John protested. "What else could they be keeping in there? That bar isn't being used to keep people out, it's not a lock. It's there to keep someone in."

Bobby hummed thoughtfully before acquiescing with a nod. "You're probably right."

"I'm _always_ right," John corrected him and smirked as Bobby and Jubilee snorted at the same time.

"Can we get to him?" Doug brought the conversation back on track. "Do you think that we can let him out?"

"I don't know," John admitted.

"But we can try," Bobby said and the whole group grinned at each other because now they finally had something they could attempt to do in order to get out of there. 

That 'night' when they'd all fallen into their usual tangle in order to get some sleep, John found that sleep was alluding him, despite all the trauma of the day. Instead, he found himself watching Bobby sleep. It wasn't an unfamiliar view, they had shared a room for a few years, after all. But it felt different somehow. Possibly because they were different. Whatever happened, this experience had changed them; it had changed them all, but mainly John and Bobby. Because now they knew exactly what they would put themselves through in order to save the people that they cared about. And John did care about everyone in that cell now; maybe not the first time he'd volunteered to take Theresa's place - that had been more about it being the right thing to do - but sometime around the time that Siryn and Cypher became Theresa and Doug, he knew that these kids were important to him. They were all important to each other now, bound by this shared experience. 

He wondered if they blamed the teachers for them being here too.

John thought that he'd be scared, letting people in, but he wasn't. Perhaps it was because of the situation or maybe he'd just got soft after the years of living at the school and being subjected to Bobby's unrelenting friendliness. He was pretty sure that if this had happened to him five years earlier then John would never have volunteered even once, right thing or not, because he had learned to look after himself first and foremost. 

Bobby's eyes suddenly fluttered open and he blinked at John who smiled at him softly. Bobby returned the smile and squeezed John's hand which was still held in his own. After that first time, they had both sought out the other's hand every time before they fell asleep. John supposed that they hadn't just been changed through this experience, they'd also been brought even closer than they'd been before; enough that they were able to comfort each other with touches where such touches had been unwelcome and probably dismissed as ‘childish’ before. 

"Sleep," Bobby told him quietly, so as not to wake Artie and Irma who were pillowed on his chest, and John nodded slowly before doing just that. 

The next 'morning' when they were all awake, they discussed ideas over bowls of gloop and bits of stale bread. 

"We need some way to take Cyclops out," Theresa said and John grinned at her approvingly because he hadn't expected that statement to come from the quiet and gentle girl. "He's the biggest threat because of the optics blasts as well as his X-Men training."

"What about the guns that the soldiers are carrying?" Jones asked. "They seem like a pretty big threat to me, especially now we know that they've got bullets, not tranquilizers."

Doug shook his head. "I don't think that's true. Blister Face just said it to scare us otherwise why are they keeping us here? If they wanted to kill us, they'd have done it back at the mansion."

"Good point, well made," Jubilee said, pointing at Doug. "So we're back to taking out Cyclops first."

"No," Irma suddenly piped up. "The first thing we need to do is get out of this room."

"For such a small thing, you make a lot of sense," Bobby told her and John couldn't help but chuckle when Irma flicked her hair over one shoulder and sent Bobby a look that clearly said 'duh'.

There was the Cuckoo coming out at last. John remembered how haughty the triplets had been together, walking around the school as if everyone was beneath them. It had always amused John because they were too young to really pull it off but given a few years, he knew that they'd probably be the queen bees of the school. 

Bobby looked at Irma's reaction in surprise before raising an eyebrow in John's direction. That caused John's chuckles to turn into a full blown laugh which didn't help his injuries much but, damn, if it didn't feel great. Especially when everyone else joined in, Irma included; it warmed something inside John to see everyone finally shake off that cloak of despair they'd been smothering under. 

They all spent the day planning and things suddenly felt better. Everyone seemed a lot more optimistic and John realised that sometime between that first day and the news about Wolverine they'd all given up on the idea of the X-Men finding them; no matter how much they said and tried to believe otherwise. Now they'd accepted that they had to get out of there by themselves and knowing where Wolverine was had given them hope that they could actually do that. He wasn't a teacher and he wasn't really an X-Man, he was too violent for that title. He was a wild animal locked in a cage and he was going to be pissed when he got out of there. All they had to do was unlock that cage and use the distraction of his anger and revenge to get the hell out of dodge. 

The day wasn't even over before Cyclops and the soldiers came again. John and Bobby were barely beginning to heal and had trouble getting to their feet smoothly but they did it anyway. Cyclops didn't bother trying to take any of the others; it seemed that whoever the higher ups were, they'd realised that they had to get through John and Bobby first. Cyclops waved them forward and they went through the whole force field thing again before leaving the cell. 

John's legs were still aching from the ice bath but he played it up even more, limping his way down the corridors and up the stairs, as slowly as they'd let him. Bobby had deliberately taken on a slumped posture and stared at the floor in front of him blankly as they walked, giving the impression of being almost entirely beaten down. The soldiers seemed to expect this broken silence from the two mutants, had probably been surprised that it hadn't happened after the first session. As the journey to the lab went on, the soldiers’ defences slowly began to drop in response to the non-threat that John and Bobby now presented. 

John risked a glance at Cyclops. It was too much to hope that his brainwashing would be wearing off the same way that it had the day before but he wanted to check that Cyclops was just as unconcerned with John and Bobby as he'd been every other time they'd made this journey. Then John very gradually began to slow his pace; not enough to be obvious but enough that Cyclops pulled ahead of him a little. The slightest tensing of Bobby's shoulders was the only giveaway that they weren't as broken as the soldiers and Cyclops thought they were and only John was paying close enough attention to notice that particular tell. 

The long walk to the lab was beginning to become familiar by this point, so John knew when they were approaching the small room with the big metal box and his hand slowly began to creep towards the small of his back in anticipation. He waited until the box was in view, just to make sure that it was in the same condition as the last time he saw it and that the door hadn't swung open to reveal a filing cabinet or some such uselessness. But it was still there and that bar was still keeping whatever was inside it locked up. So John took a deep breath. As part of their plan, John had hidden the food tray from the cell down the back of his pants and beneath his new top. He grabbed that tray now, pulled it free of the scrubs and then smashed it into the back of Cyclops' head as hard as he could. 

Cyclops immediately dropped to the ground with a grunt of pain and the soldiers spun in place to subdue John but Bobby was ready for them. He punched one of them and then quickly kicked the second soldier in the stomach. John fell down beside Cyclops, who was still showing signs of being awake despite the blow to his head, and grabbed a handful of his hair so that he could smack Cyclops' head in the wall beside them. Cyclops slumped to the floor after that and John only felt a little guilty for hurting his teacher; after all Cyclops had hurt them too. 

Bobby was struggling with one of the soldiers. He'd grabbed the man's gun and pushed it down enough that it pointed at the ground rather than him but the soldier had recovered quickly and was fighting Bobby's grip. The second soldier was also getting over the nasty kick that Bobby had given him and was lifting his gun to aim at Bobby. John saw this and dived at the man, grabbing him around the legs and crashing them both to the floor where they wrestled against each other, each trying to get control of the gun. The soldier was bigger and obviously better trained than John, who had exactly zero training to his name, but John had surprise on his side, he had experience of fighting dirty from his time on the streets and he had no choice but to succeed because there were people counting on him. So he pulled out every trick he knew, he bit and clawed at the guy. He raked his nails over the soldier's face and pushed his fingers into his eyes until the man screamed and let go of the gun to push at John's hands instead. 

As quick as he could, John grabbed the gun and pulled the trigger. Part of him expected Doug to have been wrong, that there were actually bullets in the guns now, but instead of a loud bang, there was a quiet hiss and a tranquiliser dart pierced the soldier's bicep. 

A choking sound came from behind him and John turned his head to see Bobby being held in the tight grip of the second soldier with the soldier's arm wrapped in a choke hold around Bobby's throat.

"Drop it," the soldier ordered, nodding at the gun John was still holding. "Drop it or I'll break his fucking neck before the dart even leaves the barrel."

"Don't..." Bobby managed to get out even as his face began to turn red and he struggled to breathe. "Kids..."

John knew exactly was Bobby was trying to say, that the kids were more important than him, but John still wavered. He wasn't sure that he could risk Bobby even if it was to save the others.

A familiar red blast suddenly hit the soldier and he and Bobby were thrown to the side.

John's hands were shaking as he raised the gun towards Cyclops and his mind was on a loop of _'is Bobby okay? Jesus Christ, what if he's hurt?'._

Cyclops was slumped against the wall with blood sluggishly running down the side of his face from where John had bounced it against the wall. He dropped his hand from the side of his visor and held both hands up in front of him.

"It's me, John," he said. "I swear. It's just me."

John narrowed his eyes at him, unsure if he could believe that, but Cyclop's voice was no longer in that awful monotone and John really needed to check on Bobby. So he lowered the gun, without dropping it entirely, and scrambled across the floor to Bobby.

"Hey! Talk to me! Are you okay? Bobby?" 

Bobby groaned and opened his eyes to look up at John. From John's brief inspection, it didn't look like Cyclops' blast had hit Bobby, he'd just banged his head on the floor when he fell.

"Wha' happened?" Bobby asked.

"Cyclops," John told him. 

It took a second, but as soon as that penetrated, Bobby sat up and grabbed the second soldier's gun. He only swayed a little as he pointed it at Cyclops.

"It's me," Cyclops said again and his expression was stricken. "God, I'm sorry, Bobby. I'm so fucking sorry."

It was the first time that John had ever heard Cyclops swear, hadn't even been sure that he knew how, but it caused Bobby to lower the gun and nod at him grimly. 

"We need to get on with this before they send reinforcements," John said, breaking the moment because they _were_ on limited time here. 

If their captors had been able to see the fight outside the cell before the previous round of testing, then it was highly likely that there were cameras all over the place. Their actions had probably already been witnessed and a new team of soldiers were likely on their way.

"Right," Bobby agreed and they hurried into the room. 

John tried to push up the bar while Bobby banged on the side of the box.

"Logan? Wolverine? Are you in there?" he yelled.

There was the noise of something moving inside which wasn't really an answer but it was the best they were going to get until they could open the door which was proving harder than expected. The bar was so heavy that even with John pushing with all of his weight, it wouldn't budge. Bobby joined him and, with both of them pushing, it moved a little but not enough to push it free of the first bracket.

Cyclops appeared in the doorway. "You think Wolverine's in there?"

"There's _something_ in here," John gritted out as he kept pushing. "And we know that they caught Wolverine."

Cyclops nodded and then came to stand behind Bobby, adding his weight to the effort, and this time they managed to push the bar free of both brackets until it landed on the floor with a large clang. Immediately they pulled open the door to reveal Logan, strapped to the back of the box in a similar way as the boys had been strapped down to the bed. 

Bobby started to unbuckle the straps but Cyclops told him to step back and used his optic blasts to cut the straps instead. Wolverine fell forward and John and Bobby caught him before he hit the floor. John was surprised by how heavy Wolverine was but he guessed that all that metal inside of him had to add up.

"That explains a lot," Bobby suddenly murmured and tapped his finger against the collar around Wolverine's neck.

It looked exactly like the bracelets that John, Bobby and the kids wore. Which had to be why Wolverine hadn't just used his claws to get himself out of the box.

"Can you get it off?" John asked Cyclops and then added. "Can you get them all off?"

"I can try but you have to hold completely still," Cyclops replied, which hadn't really been what John had been expecting; he'd thought that Cyclops might have a key to them or something.

"Do it!" Wolverine growled before he pushed John and Bobby away and then bared his throat to Cyclops.

Cyclops nodded and then visibly tried to centre himself before he raised a hand to his visor. A needle thin beam of red hit the collar right at the point where the seam was visible. The seam began to heat under the onslaught and Wolverine made a small growl of discomfort but then the collar popped open and that growl grew to a roar. He yanked the collar free from his throat and then jumped to his feet. His claws emerged from his knuckles with an audible 'snickt' sound and Wolverine looked ready to kill anything that came close to him. His expression was terrifying enough that John involuntarily took a step back.

"Logan!" Cyclops snapped and ignored the snarl that he got in return. "There's no time for that. We have to get the kids and then we have to find out where Stryker's holding the Professor and get us all out of here."

"So the Professor _is_ here?" Bobby asked and Cyclops nodded.

“They grabbed us both at the prison but I’m not sure where they’re keeping him,” he said. 

“I can find him,” Wolverine told them. “You get the kids.”

Cyclops looked like he wanted to argue, he probably wanted them to stick together, but they all suddenly heard the sound of boots running along the stone floor towards them. Time was up. 

“Scott!” Bobby held out the hand with the cuff towards Cyclops and John quickly copied him.

By the time that Cyclops had done his trick with the optic blast and got the bracelets off them, the soldiers were already at the door. 

Wolverine didn’t give them a chance to use their guns, instead he dived straight at them, slashing his claws and twisting his body through the group in a way that was strangely elegant. It kind of reminded John of one of those old martial arts movies that Piotr loved to watch. Cyclops began to blast at the soldiers that Wolverine couldn’t reach and Bobby froze the guns. Bobby’s control wasn’t perfect at the best of times and he’d been cut off from his powers for days so freezing the guns actually meant that he was covering the whole gun and the soldiers’ hands in big blocks of ice.

Not for the first time, John regretted the fact that he needed a catalyst for his power because the plastic lighter he’d had hidden in his sock had gone the way of his clothes after he’d been stripped for the ice bath. He watched the fight and then eyed the soldier lying unconscious on the floor of the corridor; the soldier he’d knocked out earlier and who had stank of cigarette smoke. Deciding that the others were keeping the new group of soldiers distracted enough for him to risk it; John darted out to the first soldier and began to desperately pat him down while Bobby screamed at him to keep his head down. He finally found the pack of smokes and a lighter in one of the many pockets on the cargo pants and immediately flicked on the lighter.

The familiar rush through his body felt incredible after having to go without it for so long. It felt right in a way that nothing else in his life ever had.

Bobby yelled at him again, this time a warning, and John turned to see a soldier running at him. Immediately John manipulated the flame of the lighter to create a wall of fire which drove the soldier back into Wolverine’s waiting claws and then John could properly join the fight. He liked Bobby’s tactics of targeting the guns first, lessening the chance of any of them getting hit with a tranq, so John used his fire to heat the metal of the gun until the soldiers had no choice but to drop them. 

The four mutants working together proved very effective and before long they’d taken down all of the large group of soldiers. Wolverine immediately took off down the corridor.

“Get the kids. Me and the Prof will find you,” he called back over his shoulder.

With a brief nod, Cyclops, Bobby and John set off in the opposite direction but not before Bobby managed to wrangle a jacket off one of the unconscious soldiers and pulled it on. John guessed that it had less to do with the cold, he was Iceman after all, but more to do with how vulnerable he felt with only bandages covering him above the waist.

“That was a stupid move back there, John,” Cyclops suddenly said as they jogged towards the first flight of stairs. “You could have waited until after the fight to grab that lighter, just like Bobby did with the jacket.”

John frowned but before he could argue the point, Bobby did it for him.

“No, he couldn’t,” Bobby said angrily. “Do you think we would have taken them down as easily without him? Besides, you have absolutely no idea what it’s like to have your power taken away from you, Scott. Once you removed the bracelet he _needed_ to get to that lighter; I’d have done the same.”

Cyclops pushed open the door at the top of the stairwell and shot Bobby a pained, guilt-ridden look but didn’t say anything. John just blinked at Bobby. He knew that Bobby was fully aware of John’s need to have a lighter on his person at any given moment; he’d even tried to explain to Bobby once, how he much he hated being vulnerable and he always felt vulnerable without a flame to hand. He remembered that Bobby had stopped complaining about John’s habit of always flicking the top of his zippo after that but he’d always thought that had been a concession because Bobby couldn’t really understand how it felt to not create his power himself. But maybe Bobby had put it together with the other bits and pieces he'd learned about John over the years and he _had_ got it, after all. 

They moved back to the cell as quickly as they could, running down the stairs and through the corridors but stopping every time they reached a corner so that they could make sure they didn’t run headlong into another group of soldiers. They only came across two small groups, which they easily dispatched between the three of them, and that probably should have worried John but he was too intent on getting back to the kids. 

Cyclops skidded to a halt outside the cell, next to a small electronic box beside the door which John had already figured out controlled the force field. Cyclops frowned at it and then looked at the locked door of the cell.

“The force field’s down,” he told them quietly and John’s stomach dropped as he realised what that meant.

It meant that the soldiers were probably in there waiting for them. The only thing that John could hope was that they hadn’t harmed the kids. 

Cyclops moved to the door carefully and then waited for John and Bobby to activate their powers. Once they nodded their readiness, he opened the door and the three of them stepped into the cell. John guessed that he shouldn’t have been surprised that Blister Face was in charge of the group of soldiers waiting for them; after all he’d witnessed firsthand how much John cared about those kids and had to know that John and Bobby would head back to them.

The fire in his hand flared a little when he saw the knife that Blister Face held against Irma’s throat but he fought to bring it back under control. The other soldiers didn't have knives but they all had hold of one of the kids and were deliberately standing behind them as if to use them as a shield. 

“Jubilee, you okay?” John asked in as casual a manner as he could.

“Just peachy, Pyro,” Jubilee replied in a similar tone, as if her arms weren’t being painfully pulled behind her body, and John forced a smile so that she could see he approved of that. Her eyes flickered towards Cyclops. “I see that you’ve knocked some sense into certain people.”

“About time,” the usually easy-going Jones muttered and, out of the corner of his eye, John could see the flinch that Cyclops gave at that.

Yes, this group of children wouldn’t be forgiving him any time soon. Of course, they had to get out of there unscathed for long term forgiveness to happen.

“Hey!” Blister Face yelled at him, annoyed at the thought that he wasn’t the focus of John’s attention even though he very much was. “In case you haven’t noticed, this is a lose/lose situation for you, Firefreak. Either you back down and turn off those powers of yours or we kill these children right in front of you.”

“And you called _us_ monsters,” Bobby damn near growled at him and the temperature of the room dropped a few degrees.

Irma gasped when Blister Face pressed the knife harder against her throat in response.

“Ease up, Bobby,” John murmured and Bobby nodded tightly before doing just that.

John studied Irma carefully, trying to see if that had caused any bleeding but her throat looked unmarked, thankfully. He did take note of the fact that she wasn’t crying as he’d expected her to be; instead she looked furious, her eyes flashing in anger, and John was sure that if she could use her powers then Blister Face would be bleeding from his eyes while she liquefied his mind. It seemed that once she got over the shock she’d been in initially and tapped into the infamous Cuckoo Triplets frame of mind, she'd found some kind of internal strength. John was so proud of her.

“Why don’t we compromise,” Cyclops was saying. “We’ll pull our powers back if you let Irma go. You don’t really want to kill a child.”

John understood what he was doing; thanks to that knife, Irma was the one that was really in danger if they unleashed their powers on the soldiers. There was enough space or height difference between the other kids and the soldiers holding them that they could blast, freeze or burn them without the kid getting caught in the crossfire.

“But she’s not a child, is she?” Blister Face replied with a manic gleam in his eye that showed just how crazy he'd really become. “She’s unnatural. An evil being with the face of an angelic lamb made to trick us.”

That was the point that John realised Blister Face was planning on killing them all anyway. As far as he was concerned, none of the mutants were leaving that cell alive. He glanced at Cyclops for a clue on what to do next but Cyclops looked just as thrown by Blister Face’s ranting as John was. 

Shit. 

Suddenly the speaker in the corridor crackled to life as it had before. However this time the voice didn’t sound like a bored scientist, it was the voice of a man in full blown panic.

“All soldiers fall back to the control room!” The voice yelled. “I repeat, all soldiers fall back to the...”

The voice trailed off and loud bangs could be heard in the background. John and Bobby looked at each other as more voices began to shout in the control room.

“He’s getting through!”

“Fuck, the door’s breaking! It’s actually fucking breaking!”

“Someone stop him! He’s going to kill us all!”

John stole a glance at the rest of the room who were all staring out towards the corridor in varying degrees of horror. Doug caught his eye and subtly raised an eyebrow at him in question. John gave him a faint nod; it was Wolverine and the distraction they’d planned for, they just hadn’t factored this stand off into their plans.

“What the hell _is_ that?” One of the soldiers in the room muttered.

The yelling over the tannoy system descended into screams as Wolverine obviously broke through the door and into the control room. John vaguely wondered why he was there instead of looking for the Professor as he’d said he was going to do but pushed that away because he had more important things to be worrying about right now. 

“That would be Weapon X. We let him out,” Bobby snarled, using the name that John suddenly remembered the scientist had used to refer to Wolverine.

In another situation, John would have enjoyed the way that the colour drained out of the face of most of the soldiers in the room. 

“Bill, if Weapon X is loose then we need to get out of here,” one of the soldiers said to Blister Face. “Like right now, before he finds us too.”

“We’re not going anywhere!” Blister Face shouted. “We have a mission to do, soldier. We have to cleanse the world of these...”

He broke off into a high pitched screech. Apparently when he turned his head to yell over his shoulder at his fellow soldiers, Blister Face had accidentally moved the hand in which he was holding the knife far enough away from Irma’s throat that she had been able to grab it. Then she did the only thing she could do and sank her teeth into the meat of his hand hard enough to make him scream and drop the knife.

“Irma, get down! Now!” John yelled.

She instantly followed his orders and dropped, flattening herself to the ground and throwing her hands over her head. As soon as she was out of range, John sent his fire straight at Blister Face’s surprised expression. His screams joined the ones still coming over the speakers. 

Concentrating as hard as he could, John created five tendrils of flame which broke off from the main ball of fire surrounding the top half of Blister Face, and made them twist across the room until they were poised in front of the faces of the remaining soldiers. Instinctively John could feel a stream of cold following the same path as the flames but he knew that Bobby wasn’t trying to put out John’s fire. He’d been able to feel Bobby’s anger towards the soldiers for threatening the kids almost as strongly as he could feel his own so, even though he couldn’t break his concentration enough to check what Bobby was doing, he knew that the ice was complimenting his fire somehow.

“I’d let the children go, if I were you,” Cyclops told the soldiers. “Good, now step back and drop the guns or you’ll end up like Bill there.”

Blister Face had stopped screaming so John could hear the sound of guns hitting the ground but sweat was running down his face in rivulets, dripping into his eyes and obscuring his vision of it. He couldn’t take the time to wipe the perspiration away; he had to focus all his attention on controlling the fire. 

“Cyclops,” he said through gritted teeth. “Get them out of the room.”

He could hear some activity happening around him then, what felt like a lifetime later, Cyclops said, “It’s okay, the kids are out in the corridor. You can stop now.”

But John wasn’t sure that he could. He felt like his muscles had been clenched into position too hard for too long and now he couldn’t relax them again. There was a wash of cold and this time it did extinguish the five flames that John had sent at the remaining soldiers, and that helped but he still couldn’t let go of the fire around Blister Face.

“John, the kids are out of view. You can let him go,” Bobby’s voice gently said from beside him and John shook his head.

“I can’t,” he gasped and then made a pained noise and dropped to his knees because this was draining all his energy but he couldn’t stop.

There was a muttered curse, then John was surrounded in blissful coolness and knew that Bobby had just wrapped his arms around him. 

“It’s okay, John. I’ve got you,” Bobby said into his ear. “Remember what the Professor taught us. Imagine a switch inside your mind and turn it off; just like a light.”

John started to shake and the coolness crept along his arms until it reached his wrists but John’s body automatically fought against Bobby’s attempts to extinguish the flame in his hands. There was the hiss of steam when the ice and fire fought each other and John hysterically thought that it had been so much better when the ice and fire worked together. 

“Flip the switch,” Bobby said. “We’ll do it together, okay? On the count of three...”

John dredged up the memory of that class and what the Professor had said. He remembered picturing an old fashioned light switch in his head.

“One...”

He leaned back against Bobby and pulled up the image of that light switch again.

“...two...”

He pictured himself standing next to the switch with his hand raised.

“...three!”

John flicked the switch in his mind at the same time at Bobby’s hands covered his own. The flame went out and there was a loud thud as John’s power let go of Blister Face, causing his body to drop to the floor. John collapsed back into Bobby’s hold and he could feel the sigh of relief that Bobby gave against him.

“You had me worried there, Johnny,” he whispered against John’s hair.

John wanted to make a quip but was too exhausted to do it; instead he just squeezed Bobby’s hands, which were still in his own.

“Time to go, boys,” Cyclops said although John could hear the note of apology in his voice.

He was right, they couldn’t waste time sitting around in their cell when the door was open and they had a shot at getting out of this entire place. John nodded and let go of Bobby. He scrubbed a hand over his face, finally wiping away the sweat and smoke, and opened his eyes to get moving.

He let out a choked noise when he finally took in the cell. The soldiers were unconscious, lying on the floor together in a large pile which was made more awkward due to the fact that their feet were frozen to the floor by the ice which had been creeping up their bodies from below while the fire threatened them from above. John could see tranquiliser darts sticking out of them and assumed that Cyclops must have done that because John and Bobby had been a little busy. 

But what really shocked John was Blister Face. He’d known that it would be bad, that’s why he’d told Cyclops to get the kids out of the room, but that didn’t prepare him for the actual sight of it. The entirety of Blister Face’s body from the stomach up had been burned down to the bone. The blackened skull grinned grotesquely at him and John immediately threw up. 

It was his worst nightmare come to life and proved what John had always known; that deep down, he was his father's son. Except he'd surpassed his father's cruelty by a very long way.

Cold hands rubbed his back as John vomited everything that was in his stomach and then just kept gagging. Warmer hands grabbed his face and John was forced to look up at Cyclops.

“You did good, John,” Cyclops told him fiercely. “I know it doesn’t seem that way now and that you’re going to be haunted by this. _I know!_ But those kids out there are alive because of you and you can’t let this destroy you; you have to keep going. Understand?”

John gave a shaky nod and let Cyclops pull him to his feet where he swayed dangerously. Bobby instantly wrapped an arm around John’s torso and they made their way out of the cell without a backwards look.

Wolverine had said that he’d meet back up with them but he’d obviously been distracted by whatever the hell happened in the control room so John, Bobby and the kids had to trust that Cyclops knew where he was going. Again, they rushed through the corridors as quickly as John could move, only pausing at corners and doorways. Cyclops quickly took care of the couple of soldiers they came across which was good because John didn’t think he could access his powers again right now. 

They were halfway up a stairwell when a loud explosion shook the building and they all had to grab hold of the railing to stop themselves from falling.

“What the hell was that?” Doug asked loudly and Cyclops just shook his head because he obviously had no idea.

They kept climbing and had just left the doorway at the top of the stairwell when a familiar voice suddenly sounded in John’s mind.

_“Turn left and follow the pipes along the ceiling.”_

It was the Professor and, judging from the relieved looks on everyone’s face, they'd all heard it too.

They put on an extra burst of speed and followed the professor’s continued directions until they came out in a large room which was filled with large and very rusted pieces of machinery. The Professor was sitting on the floor, propped up against a large pipe, while Wolverine attacked an access panel on the wall with his claws. As they reached the Professor, a set of very large, thick steel doors slammed shut in front of them as a result of Wolverine's vandalism. It was on the tip of John’s tongue to point out that they were trying to get out and should be opening doors not closing them, but before he could there was an almighty crash from behind those doors and water began spitting into the room through small cracks in the stone surrounding them.

“We don’t want to go that way,” Wolverine said. “Trust me.”

“It appears that this entire base is underneath Alkali Lake,” the Professor told them, his voice scratchy as if from disuse. “That recent explosion has damaged both the structural integrity of the base and that of the dam above us.”

Wolverine picked the Professor up and quickly led them all through a smaller doorway to the right of the huge metal doors. 

“What _was_ the explosion?” Jones asked as they ran down the corridor and pretended not to notice the water running down the walls in small streams. 

“Dynamite,” Wolverine replied. 

Cyclops groaned. “Please tell me that wasn’t your doing. What am I saying? Of course it was.”

“I'm afraid that he really had no choice,” the Professor said, looking back at them over Wolverine’s shoulder. “For reasons I shall explain later, the room I was being held in had to be destroyed before Stryker attempted to use it again.”

They finally reached another doorway and pushed through it to the frozen world outside. John couldn’t quite believe it; they’d done it! They were out of the base! 

“Think that you can make it by yourself now?” Bobby asked quietly and John stepped away from the hold his friend still had around him. 

His legs still felt a little shaky but he nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Good.” Bobby proceeded to remove his shoes and handed them to John. “Here, you’re going to need these.”

He then turned and swung Theresa up into his arms. She gave small noise of surprise before Bobby pointed out that she was bare foot and they were surrounded by snow on all sides. That’s when John understood why the hell he was holding his best friend’s shoes. The snow wouldn’t affect Bobby but it would probably give John flashbacks of the ice bath at the very least if he tried to walk through it barefoot.

Cyclops gave Bobby an approving look for his actions but his face fell a little when instead of smiling back proudly as he normally would have, Bobby instead deliberately looked away from him. His face fell even further when he stepped forward towards Artie, who was also without slippers, only for Doug to step in front of him and pick Artie up first. Then Jones let Irma jump onto his back and Jubilee gave Cyclops a look that just dared him to try and help her, even though she was only wearing a flimsy pair of slippers.

Wolverine raised his eyebrows in surprise at the kids’ attitude towards Cyclops but didn’t say anything. Instead he sniffed the air and nodded to the side of them.

“That way.”

It was much slower going as they made their way across the snow but they finally crested an embankment and could see a couple of helicopters sitting in a naturally made hollow.

“Oh, t...t...thank g...god!” Jubilee chattered and John automatically pulled her close while the rest of the kids gathered around them and tried to give her some body heat the way they had with John.

A shout suddenly cut through the quiet and John looked back to see some soldiers running out of the same door that they had.

“Get to the ‘copter. Now!” Wolverine yelled and they all began to run.

Jubilee tripped over her frozen feet and John stopped to pull her onto his back even though he still felt close to falling over himself. 

He focused on the helicopter and only that while Jubilee gave him as much encouragement as she could get out between her shivers. Cyclops snagged an arm around the both of them, because apparently the time for petty shunning was over for now, and half pushed, half pulled them the rest of the way.

The shouting was getting closer and, as Bobby and Doug pulled him and Jubilee into the helicopter, John wondered why these soldiers were running _towards_ Wolverine instead of away from him. An ominous groan that shook the ground reminded him that the soldiers were probably just running to the helicopters and their own escape. 

It was very cramped in the back of that helicopter and the kids all rushed to strap in when the Professor told them to. Apparently Cyclops knew how to fly the thing, which shouldn’t really have been surprising because he could fly the X-Men’s jet, and John gave a sigh of relief when the blades began to rotate, finally drowning out those shouts, and the craft lifted off the ground. 

They’d done it!

He must’ve been projecting that thought because the Professor answered mentally; 

_“You did so well, St John.”_

John gave the man a tired nod and then slumped back into his seat with Jubilee on one side and Jones on the other, both leaning into him as much as they could with the safety belts holding them down.

“Shit!” 

John startled out of his half doze at Wolverine’s curse.

“What’s going on?” he asked, trying to crane his head back enough to look over his shoulder at the cockpit.

“The other ‘copter’s following us,” Wolverine growled. “I knew I should’ve disabled that thing before we took off.”

“There was no time,” Cyclops told him exasperatedly as if this was an argument they’d had before; it must’ve been while John was dozing.

“Oh dear,” the Professor suddenly said, his eyes looking into the middle distance in that way they always did when he was reading someone. “They have received orders to shoot us down.”

Almost as soon as the words were out of the Professor’s mouth, the other helicopter let loose a wave of machine gun fire at them. 

“Shit!” This time it was Cyclops who swore and John could see smoke rising from somewhere below them.

“Oh my god, we’re going to crash!” Artie yelled which caused Irma to scream.

The helicopter lurched once and then began to turn in a tight circle, indicating that Cyclops had lost control. Jubilee grabbed John and Theresa’s hands in a death grip and John grabbed hold of Jones’. He grabbed Artie’s and Artie reached across to the other seat to take hold of Doug’s hand. Doug grabbed Irma’s and she took hold of Bobby’s. Their faces reflected the terror and fear that they were all currently feeling but the action spoke louder than any of that. They’d made it this far because they were a team and they weren’t giving up on that now.

The engine of the helicopter was screaming as it spiralled lower and lower towards the canopy of snow covered trees below them. 

Over the noise of that was the sound of Wolverine chanting, “No! No! No! No!...”

That was eventually drowned out by the bangs of the branches hitting the helicopter as they broke through the canopy. Jubilee started to shout, quickly followed by Doug, Artie and Irma. John couldn’t help it; he imagined the ground rushing up to meet them, braced himself for the impact and yelled at the top of his voice too.

Then he stopped when the helicopter came to sudden halt. He opened eyes that he hadn’t even realised he’d closed and turned in his seat to look out of the windscreen at the unmistakable shape of Magneto, holding the helicopter in midair. 

“Don’t worry, Scott,” the Professor said dryly into the shocked silence. “I promise that I’ll never tell him just how happy you are to see him.”

“Charles,” Magneto greeted the Professor after he’d lowered the helicopter onto the ground and opened the door. “It appears that you’ve rather spoiled my daring rescue, old friend.”

“I’d be flattered if I thought rescuing me was your main reason for being here, Erik,” the Professor replied with a small smile and Magneto laughed.

John exchanged a confused look with Bobby and the others. Magneto was supposed to be their enemy. He’d heard the stories that he and the Professor had been friends once upon a time but they shouldn’t be talking as though they were _still_ the best of friends. 

“Besides, our valiant escape was down to the children, not me,” the Professor added, bestowing them all with a proud smile.

“Is that so?” Magneto looked at them all curiously for a moment. “Mystique, my dear? Lets get our friends out of this aircraft and send their pursuers a message, shall we?”

Mystique opened the opposite door and John couldn’t help but stare. She was an absolute legend; the mutant who refused to hide her true form even to wear clothes. A terrifying legend but a legend nonetheless. She caught him gaping and smirked at him.

“Everyone out,” she said in a voice that somehow didn’t suit her and yet was perfect for her at the same time. “There’s a van waiting just over there.”

As they had before, the kids with shoes or slippers all lifted the ones without into their arms or onto their backs before heading to the van that Mystique had pointed them towards. Wolverine walked beside them, scowling back at Mystique but apparently accepting that they had no choice but to ally themselves with her and Magneto for now. Cyclops followed, carrying the Professor, with Magneto trailing behind them. Mystique ducked into the helicopter for a moment before she hurried over to the van, jumped into the driver’s seat and drove them away.

They were barely out of sight of the helicopter when it exploded in a huge ball of flame that had John instinctively reaching towards it even though he was already exhausted from over using his power.

“There you go,” Magneto said smugly. “Stryker and his men wanted you dead and now you are. Until you are safely back home, at least.”

John swallowed the urge to point out that he wasn’t sure the mansion would ever feel safe again.

The slight rocking of the van as it drove through the trees lulled John and this time when he fell asleep, he wasn’t woken up by loud cursing. Instead Jubilee gently shook him awake when the van came to a stop. 

The clearing looked like any other but was clearly big enough, and the surrounding foliage was sparse enough, for a certain X-Jet to land. Which meant that the Professor had managed to contact the school while John had been asleep. The back of the van was open so John could see Cyclops and Wolverine arguing about something while Magneto seemed to have magicked up a wheelchair from somewhere and he and the Professor were talking quietly to each other. John couldn’t see Mystique but he had no doubt that she was slinking around, paying attention to both conversations. 

“The Stryker they keep mentioning, that's the Bearded Man,” Bobby told him, coming to sit beside him and also looking out at the adults. “Apparently he built a new Cerebro and was using a telepath to convince the Professor that he should kill every mutant in the world with it.”

John turned to stare at Bobby. "That makes absolutely no sense." 

“It’s true,” Artie piped up. “And the telepath he was using was _his own son_!”

“The Professor told you this?” John asked and Bobby and Artie nodded.

The others looked just as confused as John so he guessed that they’d been asleep too. 

“Well, he told Cyclops and the others,” Bobby amended. “But he had to know we were awake; he’s the Professor.”

“Geez, how strong must this other telepath be if Stryker thought he could overpower the Professor?” Jones asked.

“It doesn’t matter now. Wolverine blew him up along with the new Cerebro.” Artie shrugged.

Well, that explained the explosion and why Wolverine had been playing with dynamite with the Professor’s apparent permission.

“So we were just toys to play with while Stryker was waiting for the Professor to kill us all,” John said, looking at Bobby who nodded.

“Or, more likely, we were pawns he could use if the Professor kept resisting him,” Jubilee said. “He probably expected to capture more of us that night at the school.”

They all fell quiet for a while as they thought about that. Irma climbed into John’s lap as though she belonged there and John gave a small smile at the fact that she definitely wasn't clinging to them any longer. 

“When is Cyclops going to remove our bracelets?” she demanded to know and John instantly felt a wave of guilt crash over him.

He remembered how great it felt to lose his bracelet and get his powers back but, somehow, in all the action and almost dying, he’d forgotten that the rest of them still had their bracelets on.

“Don’t,” Jubilee said with a roll of her eyes. “Guilt doesn’t suit you, Pyro. And we _have_ all been a little busy.”

“But we should’ve remembered,” Bobby said, looking just as guilty as John felt.

John opened his mouth to call out to Cyclops but at the last minute changed his mind.

“Hey, Magneto!” He shouted and ignored the kick that Bobby gave him. “Do you think you can get these cuffs off?”

The rest of the group were staring at him with the same expression of surprise that Magneto himself was giving John for apparently having the audacity to yell at him.

“What?” John shrugged. “They’re metal. He can manipulate metal. It makes sense.”

He could see the Professor give a small chuckle and Jubilee recovered quickly enough to smirk at him. Magneto strode over to the van, all whipping cloak and majestic bearing. 

“Show me,” he demanded and Irma immediately held out her arm.

He looked at the cuff for a moment and then raised an eyebrow. “These were blocking your gifts? Barbaric!”

With one wave of his hand all the cuffs popped open and fell to the ground. Irma instantly gasped and fell back against John, her eyes closed and a smile breaking out on her face.

“I can hear them!” she said in a relieved voice. 

John hugged her closer and whispered how happy he was for her because he knew how much she’d missed her sisters.

Jubilee immediately began to make sparks dance on her fingertips until Bobby and Theresa cheerfully made her get out of the van if she was 'going to keep doing that'. Jones blinked his eyes and caused the van’s engine to start and then stop again while he gave a joyous laugh. Leathery scales appeared over Artie’s body in a wash while he gave a sigh of relief and Bobby grinned delightedly at him because it had come to light during their conversations back in the cell that none of them had ever actually seen Artie’s mutation, besides the forked tongue that never went away. 

John grinned to see the whole group revelling in the return of their mutations and he caught Magneto’s eye. The older man was watching him with a small smile of his own.

“This is how it’s meant to be,” he told John. “No hiding who we are, just embracing it.”

“I know,” John told him and that small smile turned very pleased. 

Doug then said something which distracted Magneto because Doug was in Cypher-mode and speaking German, although John knew that he was probably unaware that he was even doing it. Magneto replied, also in German, and the two of them held a small conversation before Magneto said something that was obviously meant for all of them. He gave John one last significant look before he left and walked back over to the Professor.

“What did he say?” Bobby asked Doug.

“That we are gods among insects and we aren’t to forget it,” Doug told them. 

Bobby snorted and made a comment about typical grandiose statements but John looked thoughtfully at Magneto who tipped his hat back at him. 

Cyclops shouted and pointed up just as the sky shimmered and the X-Jet became visible. 

“Time to go home,” John said and they all clambered out of the back of the van.

The jet had barely landed before Dr Grey ran down the ramp and threw herself at Cyclops who swung her around in delight; Cyclops became oblivious to Wolverine standing beside them but John didn’t miss the look Dr Grey sent him over Cyclops’ shoulder. Storm was out of the plane next and she ran straight for the Professor and gave him a hug, talking nineteen to the dozen all the while. Then she straightened at something the Professor said and looked over at the kids, all huddled together in a group and her hands flew to her mouth. She was suddenly giving them all hugs and telling them how proud she was of them so fast that John wondered if she’d learned to teleport while they’d been gone. If she noticed their lack of enthusiasm in returning the hugs, she either didn’t notice or, more likely, put it down to their obvious exhaustion. 

As Storm shepherded them across the field to the jet, telling them all the while about the warm beds and hot chocolate waiting for them when they got home, Mystique suddenly materialised next to John. He was pleased that he only jumped a little bit.

“You don’t belong with them,” she whispered. “Not with these people who’d rather protect humans than their own kind. Magneto likes you, boy, so come with us instead and we’ll show you where you really belong.”

John glanced to one side where both the Professor and Magneto were watching the conversation intently as if they were the good and bad angels sitting on John’s shoulders and waiting to see which way he’d turn. John would be lying if he said that he wasn’t tempted by Magneto’s offer. He was so angry with the teachers for getting them all into Stryker’s clutches and he did agree that he shouldn’t have to hide who he was and what he could do. But this whole fiasco had given him a new family now and he wasn’t going to just up and abandon them. 

Irma immediately grabbed his hand and swung it between them as they walked because she clearly knew just what was going on and what John was thinking and was obviously pleased with the conclusion John had come to. Bobby chose that moment to turn and give John a smile that lit up his face, not because he’d suddenly become a telepath too but because he’d always been weirdly attuned to John’s moods; which should annoy John but never had.

“You're right, I don’t belong with _them_ ,” John agreed with Mystique as he nodded towards the teachers. Then he pointed at his small group of friends, his _family_. “But I belong with them. So tell Magneto, thanks but no thanks.”

Mystique gave a quick nod of understanding and then slunk away again before any of the teachers, besides the Professor, noticed that she’d even been there. 

During the plane ride home, Storm and Dr Grey tried to keep up a conversation. Telling them how the rest of the kids had hidden in the tunnels until Storm and Dr Grey had returned from their trip to collect some guy called Kurt, how they're going to love Kurt when they meet him, how happy the rest of the school will be to see them and how 'Rogue will be so pleased to see you, Bobby'. Eventually the lack of response caused them to trail off, with a worried look at each other, and the rest of the journey was made in silence. 

"Logan!" was the first thing that could be heard when the group left the jet in the hangar and walked into the school. It was quickly followed by "Irma!".

Rogue ran down the corridor towards them all and threw her well covered arms around Wolverine at the same time as two mirror images of Irma dived at Irma with loud squeals. John looked at Bobby, unsure how he'd take Rogue's reaction to their return but Bobby wasn't paying attention to her, instead he was laughing at the happy triplets bouncing on the spot with their hands clutched together. 

John put his arm around Theresa's shoulder, both out of companionship and also to disguise the fact that he couldn’t seem to stop shaking. Bobby did the same with Jubilee and the three boys wove their way into the little group too so that they could all enjoy the pure happiness that Irma was radiating now that she was back with her sisters. It was almost enough to make him forget how much his body hurt; something that he had become more and more aware of during that plane journey as the adrenaline wore off and he had nothing to distract himself from it. 

The triplets suddenly all stopped jumping and turned to the small group watching them. 

"Thank you," Phoebe and Celeste said at the same time.

"You brought her home," one of them continued.

"You kept her sane when she couldn't reach us," the other added and John really hoped that when Irma cleaned up, he'd still be able to tell the difference between her and her sisters.

"We'll wear badges," the first one told John, helpfully, and Irma smacked her on the arm.

"No reading my friends without their permission."

The other two frowned at Irma. "But they're our friends too now."

"So no reading us without our permission," Jubilee repeated, apparently realising along with the rest of them, that if Irma was part of their family then Phoebe and Celeste had to be too.

Phoebe and Celeste looked at each and then nodded. 

"Okay," they said in unison and Irma beamed at all of them. 

"Bobby?" Rogue had let go of Wolverine and approached the group. 

She stopped and frowned in confusion when Bobby didn't let go of Jubilee or step away from the others to greet her.

"Bobby, sugar, I'm so happy that you're okay. I was so worried about you."

The Cuckoos snorted in unison and Rogue shot them a glare which they returned evenly. John hid a grin, apparently agreeing not to read people really didn't extend to anyone outside of their group. 

Bobby smiled at Rogue. "It's good to be home, Rogue. Thanks."

The smile that Rogue had given Bobby when he answered her began to fade when he still didn't make any sort of move towards her. "Umm...can we talk or something, Bobby?"

"That will have to wait, I'm afraid, Rogue," Dr Grey stepped up to them all. "I need to check everyone over in the lab." Her face softened into a gentle smile as she looked at the group. "I can see the injuries that most of you are trying to hide. I promise that you'll feel a lot better if you let me patch you up."

It wasn't as though they really had much choice but John still said, "Only if Phoebe and Celeste can stay with us."

They may only be separated while the group got medical checks but he didn't think it would be good to remove Irma from her sisters this soon. Dr Grey studied the determined faces that John and the rest of the group gave her before nodding her permission, to the apparent displeasure of Rogue who John was sure thought she should be allowed to go to the labs too.

Phoebe and Celeste graced John with a huge, and slightly surprised, smile before he found himself being hugged by all three triplets. 

"You're never getting rid of them now," Bobby whispered as they followed the Cuckoos to the labs.

"I think you mean that _we're_ never getting rid of them," John replied with a smirk.

Bobby shook his head. "I meant what I said. They like us all but you're Irma's favourite, John; and where one goes, the other two follow."

"John's everyone's favourite," Doug said and Bobby put his hand over his heart and pretended that statement cut him to the core. 

Underneath his antics, and probably the _reason_ for the antics, John could see the rising tension in Bobby at the prospect of being in a lab again. John could recognise it because he felt it himself and he made sure to walk as close to Bobby as possible so their arms brushed together and they could take that comfort that they'd recently found in each other. 

It was late by the time they were allowed to leave the labs. Late enough that the rest of the school had already retired for the night. Something that John was thankful for as they huddled around the kitchen table and wolfed down the sandwiches that a furry blue German guy, who turned out to be Storm's new BFF, Kurt, made them. John didn't think that he had it in him just yet to field the questions that they were bound to be inundated with when they eventually had to face everyone. Instead he was quite happy to idly listen to Kurt's stories about the Munich Circus. The guy was a little strange, and he definitely liked to talk, but he was inoffensive and he didn't even try to pretend that he wasn't babysitting the group while the teachers held some sort of emergency meeting about them. 

Dr Grey had announced that they were all suffering from exhaustion, malnutrition and exposure, as well as having nasty bruising from their rough treatment by the soldiers; which John could've told her before she started her examinations. Jubilee also had superficial frostbite on her toes and Artie was suffering from skin dehydration when he took his mutated form. Dr Grey left John and Bobby until last and John was still bristling at the pity in her face as she took in the state of their bodies; badly bruised and with ugly, sloppily stitched up, incisions across their chests, sides and upper arms. She'd been particularly concerned with the mottling of John's skin from the hypothermia he'd suffered during his dip in the ice bath and the angry blistering skin of the burns covering Bobby's lower arms and hands. 

Loathe as John was to admit it, the shots she'd given them and the pills that she'd made them swallow had helped ease the pain he was feeling. His tiredness had grown in response though so, after a quick trip to the showers to wash off the days of terror-sweat and grime, John was finally able to fall face first onto his bed. He groaned pleasurably as he burrowed into the sheets and pillows and fell asleep almost instantly. 

He startled awake some time later, sitting straight up in bed with the tail end of a scream echoing in the small room and fading images of the blackened skull of Blister Face and his father’s laughter flashing through his head.

"John?" Bobby switched on his bedside lamp, effectively chasing away the darkness and the remnants of John's nightmare.

"Shit!" John fell back down onto his pillows. "Sorry."

"Don't be," Bobby told him. "I think that you only just beat me to it. My dreams weren't exactly sunshine and roses."

John turned his head so that he could see Bobby sprawled across his own bed. He had an almost overwhelming urge to reach out and grab Bobby's hand, just like they'd done back in the cell. But they weren't in the cell anymore and, besides, the gap between the beds was just too far to reach him. 

They both lapsed into silence although neither of them seemed inclined to go back to sleep and revisit those horrible dreams just yet. 

"Want to go and eat some ice cream?" Bobby eventually asked and John couldn't help but laugh because that's what got them into the whole mess in the first place.

Bobby grinned back, obviously pleased to have broken the tension in the room.

"Shit, what do you think happened to that code for the Danger Room?" John wondered.

"Someone probably found it on the floor and decided it was one of Scott's ridiculously hard maths questions," Bobby said.

"At least we know that we're not going to get in trouble for stealing it," John pointed out. "We're far too _delicate_ to upset right now."

"Plus the Professor's probably too relieved that you didn't leave with Magneto to punish you," Bobby shot back and, at John's look of surprise, shrugged. "Doug overheard your little chat with Mystique. Apparently she's not quite as stealthy as she thinks she is."

"Still kind of hot though." John waggled his eyebrows and Bobby rolled his eyes.

"Only if you like women who could just as easily kill you as kiss you when you were in bed," he replied and John snorted.

"That's kind of ironic considering who you're dating," he pointed out then felt like he'd kicked a puppy when Bobby's smiled faded and his face began to flush with colour. "Shit, Bobby. I didn't..."

"S'okay," Bobby interrupted him. "It's just...all that whining and moaning about Rogue and how she didn't love me...it just feels so stupid now. I'm kind of embarrassed about it, if I'm honest."

"So...you're not going to whine anymore? That's what you're telling me, Drake?" John frowned at him. "Nope! I just can't seem to picture that at all!"

"Fuck you!" Bobby half-heartedly threw a pillow at him and John smirked before shoving the pillow under his own head. 

Part of John noted the fact that Bobby seemed to have adopted John’s casual swearing. He wondered how long it would last now that they were back at the mansion.

"So what are you going to do about Rogue?" He asked Bobby. "The whole 'being polite until she goes away' tactic might have worked last night but I don't think it will hold her off for very long. Although using the triplets as a shield was surprisingly effective."

Bobby shrugged. "She said that she wants to talk so I guess we'll do that at some point today. It shouldn't be too bad; it's not as though I'm going to break her heart or anything. I'm sure that we can still stay friends."

“So you’re definitely ending things?” John had to ask. “She might start to feel differently if she gets to play Florence Nightingale. That’s been known to happen.”

John secretly had a theory that's how Cyclops and Dr Grey got together because they weren't the most natural couple. In fact, they always seemed a little awkward together. 

“No.” Bobby shook his head. “If I learned anything during this whole nightmare it’s that I don’t love Rogue any more than she loves me. She barely entered my thoughts at all; surely if I was as head over heels as I convinced myself that I was, I would’ve been counting the hours until I could get back to her or something like that.”

John wasn’t sure why he felt relieved. He put it down to the fact that he wouldn’t have to witness any more Bobby and Rogue drama. It was beginning to get light outside and John latched onto that instead of examining his feelings about Bobby and Rogue too deeply. 

“It’s not ice-cream but I could definitely go for a coffee, right about now,” he told Bobby. “I’m pretty sure we can head out without the risk of running into commandoes at this hour.”

Bobby nodded his agreement. “Coffee would be good.”

John felt an almost sickening sense of déjà vu as they walked through the dimly lit corridors. Bobby took a leaf out of his book and stepped closer until their hands brushed as they walked, in much the same way that John had done earlier. It instantly made something in John relax; although not enough to keep him from jumping a little when a voice suddenly floated out from the rec room. It took a few seconds for John to recognise that voice and for his heart rate to stop climbing. 

“How long have you been down here?” he asked Jubilee as he walked into the room.

He didn’t bother to ask _why_ she was there. If he and Bobby had nightmares then the rest of them probably had as well. In fact Jubilee wasn’t the only member of their group collapsed on the rec room sofa; Artie and Theresa were there too. As well as Jones, of course; seeing as it was his customary nightly spot. 

“A few hours,” Jubilee told him. “I didn’t want to keep waking Kitty because she’s too nice to complain about it. And I knew that Jones would be here so I thought I’d keep him company.”

There was a slight tightness around her eyes that belied her nonchalant attitude so John knew that her nightmare had probably been as much of a doozy as his. 

“We’re going to put some coffee on,” Bobby told the others. “If you’re good, I might even be persuaded to make some milkshakes.”

“Oh, I am sooooo good, Bobby Boy!” Jubilee immediately declared. “Tell him, you lot.”

John shook his head in amusement. They’d discovered Jubilee’s love of milkshakes when she kept trying to persuade herself that’s what the gloop was whenever she forced herself to eat it. 

Jones shrugged. “Meh, she’s been okay, I guess.”

Theresa just flattened her hand and wobbled it in the international sign for ‘so, so’ and then giggled when Jubilee immediately tried to tickle her and Jones into telling the truth.

All of them traipsed into the kitchen to make the promised coffee and milkshakes and John wasn’t entirely surprised when the Cuckoos appeared and began to help; or _supervise_ , which they claimed was just as good as helping. Doug arrived not long after they’d all settled back in front of the TV and Artie handed him the spare coffee they’d made, knowing that he’d probably show up too. 

“It’s going to get better, right?” Doug asked after taking a grateful sip of the coffee.

“Probably,” John replied. 

“Of course it will,” Bobby insisted. “It’s bad right now because it’s only just happened.”

“But what about when we start classes again?” Theresa asked. “We can’t go to lessons on next to no sleep. We’re not all like Jones.”

“ _No one_ is like me,” Jones said with a smirk and Theresa smacked his arm lightly.

Dr Grey had already informed them that they were to take the next four days to recover and rejoin classes on Monday. John had started at the realisation that they’d been gone for five whole days; it simultaneously felt too few and too many days considering what they’d gone through. 

“It’s not like it’s a normal school,” Jubilee pointed out. “The Professor will figure something out until we’re sleeping properly again. I’m more worried about the fact that I’m sparking up every time there’s a sudden noise. It’s like I’ve slid right back to the beginning with my control again.”

Bobby put an arm around her and pulled her close. “You’ll get your control back. We’ll all help you.”

There was a ripple of agreement through the group and Jubilee gave them all a grateful smile. 

It somehow seemed easier to let the tiredness sneak up on them when they were together again. The Cuckoos fell asleep first, all curled up together on a giant bean bag, despite how intrigued they’d been by an infomercial for a new shampoo that would make their hair super smooth and shiny. Theresa’s head fell onto Jones’ shoulder as she followed soon after. John didn’t even notice when Jubilee and Doug fell asleep; one moment they were awake and the next they weren’t. John’s eyes began to get heavy, despite the mug of coffee he’d had, and he let himself slump against Bobby. He smiled sleepily when he felt Bobby take hold of his hand just before sleep took him completely.

“Bobby?” 

John frowned at the whisper coming from above him. 

“Bobby, wake up!”

John opened his eyes enough to see Rogue standing above him with her hands on her hips. He was about to grumble at her to go away and let him sleep when there was another hushed voice from behind him. 

“Rogue! What do you think you’re doing?” Storm sounded pissed even in whisper form. “We told you to stay out of the rec room and go straight to class this morning.”

Rec room. Right; they’d all fallen asleep in front of the TV.

“I need to talk to Bobby,” Rogue replied petulantly.

“You can talk to him after class,” Storm said. 

Through his lowered eyelids, John watched Rogue storm away from the sofa.

He heard a ‘Hey!’ from behind him and then Jones wandered into view, looking confused. 

He spotted that John was awake. “I went to the bathroom. What did I miss?”

“Rogue wanted to talk to Bobby. Again,” John told him.

Jones looked at the guy in question and a smiled played across his face. “Ah; _that_ would be why she was so mad that she pushed me out of her way.”

John raised his head to see what Jones meant and gave a huff of amusement when he saw that Bobby and Jubilee were cuddled into each other. Bobby still had hold of John’s hand too, even in sleep, but that was hidden from view.

John scrubbed his free hand over his face and noticed that the Cuckoos were gone.

“Phoebe and Celeste were only given the morning off classes to make up for the late night,” Jones replied when John asked him about that. “Storm snuck in to tell them earlier so they’ve flounced off to sulk somewhere and Irma went with them. She’ll be back after lunch.”

"Right." John pulled himself upright as Jones sat next to him. "So...anything good on TV?"

Once everyone was awake and they'd changed into actual everyday clothes, they all snuck out to the kitchens to get food while everyone else was in classes, and then settled back in front of the TV. Irma joined them once her sisters had to go to class and climbed onto John's lap with a sulky look on her face that warned everyone away from making a comment. Instead they watched ridiculous daytime soaps, acting like the peanut gallery and jeering every time a character did something particularly stupid. 

Finally there came the sound of scraping chairs and a sudden rise in voices which indicated the end of classes for the day. Bobby took a deep breath and climbed to his feet.

"Wish me luck," he said and they all chorused 'good luck' as he left the room to go and find Rogue.

The instructions to leave them all alone had obviously been lifted and a large number of students rushed into the rec room to welcome them back and ask exactly what had happened. That last question was always asked in a hushed tone with shifty looks towards the door so John guessed that they'd been told not to bring up their capture unless John or one of the others mentioned it first. The whole thing kind of freaked John out a little; he'd never had friends at the school, outside of Bobby, Piotr and then Rogue, sort of, but now he was getting clapped on the back and hugged as if he was the most popular guy at a fraternity.

After Piotr had rescued him from a particularly enthusiastic group of girls, probably because he knew John well enough to tell when he was very uncomfortable, he explained that word had got around about how John, Jones and Bobby had raised the alarm that night. The entire school thought that they were heroes who'd sacrificed themselves to give the rest of the students time to reach the tunnels.

"That's...not quite how it happened," John told Piotr, staring at him in surprise.

"For a start, Bobby didn't do anything. He was already knocked out," Jones put in helpfully but John rolled his eyes and kicked him to shut him up. 

"It is what everybody believes," Piotr said with a shrug of his massive shoulders. "You will just have to tolerate people liking you, John. Until they remember that you are a very grumpy man."

John rolled his eyes at Piotr's far too amused grin but he let the bigger guy pull him into a hug to welcome him home. As always John was surprised at how gentle Piotr's hugs were as he overcompensated for his size and strength. 

Piotr prodded John into moving to the dining room to eat but, instead of heading to the table he and Bobby usually shared with Piotr and Rogue, John moved to a table at the edge of the room which was normally empty. Piotr stopped walking and looked back at John with a small frown that turned to an expression of understanding when Jubilee, Theresa, Jones and the others joined John. He waved for John to carry on and then went to join another group instead.

"I've decided that we need a name," Jubilee announced, before she even sat down. "Something cool."

"Why do we need a name?" Doug asked.

"Because I don't want to be referred to as 'those poor kids who got captured'," Jubilee told him slowly as if talking to an idiot. "I say we nip that bullcrap in the bud right now."

"So what do you suggest?" John asked, as he dug into his huge plateful of meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

" _Something cool_ ," Jubilee repeated in an exasperated tone.

"The Survivors?" Jones suggested but the Cuckoos clearly didn't like that idea.

"That's terrible," Phoebe said.

"We definitely need something cooler than that," Irma told him and then shared a high five with Jubilee for agreeing with her about the cool factor.

John was very amused to note that, true to their word, the triplets were all wearing badges of a sort. They weren't actual badges but instead they'd put on necklaces which each had a tiny silver letter dangling from it to denote which triplet was which. He wondered how long those necklaces had been hidden at the bottom of their jewellery boxes while the sisters had revelled in confusing people by deliberately dressing the same.

"Fighters?" tried Artie. "Oh wait...Warriors!"

"Not cool enough," the Cuckoos and Jubilee said together. 

"We should go for something completely different," Theresa told them. "Something that's more about who we _are_ rather than what we went through. Otherwise we're never go to throw off the 'poor kidnapped kids' thing because we'd always have to explain why we're called 'Warriors' or 'Survivors'."

"Good point," Jubilee said and everyone fell silent as they thought of a name they could use. 

"Doug Ramsey and the Dougettes?" Doug suggested with a grin and laughed when that was, quite literally, booed by the rest of the table. "Alright, I know; it's terrible. But we really don't have that much in common under normal circumstances."

"None of us are in the popular cliques. We've got that in common," Jones pointed out. "Well, besides Bobby. Everyone loves Bobby."

"I think you'll find that we are very popular," Celeste sniffed.

"People being scared of you is not the same thing as being popular," Artie told her.

"What are we doing?" Bobby suddenly appeared behind John, dropping a hand to his shoulder and squeezing lightly.

"Apparently we need a team name and the triplets think that they're the queens of the school," John summed up as he moved to make room for Bobby to sit down.

He wanted to ask about what had happened with Rogue but, judging from Bobby's too bright to be natural smile, he thought it might be best to wait until they weren't in the middle of the dining room surrounded by the entire school. He did notice that Rogue had not followed Bobby into the dining room.

"We _are_ the queens of the school," Phoebe said, huffily. 

John exchanged an amused look with Bobby; he really did love how haughty the triplets were. 

"How about something like 'The Outsiders'? Jones said, thoughtfully, dragging the conversation back to a group name. "You know? Like that movie."

"Oooh, I kind of like it," Jubilee said but Doug and Artie claimed that they weren't sure it was quite right.

"The Misfits?" Theresa tried and slowly they all began to smile.

"I think we found a winner," Bobby observed and Theresa blushed, looking pleased.

The rest of dinner passed quite quickly and then they all decided to go their own separate ways for the evening. As Doug had pointed out, it probably wasn’t helping them heal to spend every waking minute together to the exclusion of everyone else. John knew that they all had the same kneejerk reaction to that because they wanted to stick close to the rest of the group but they ultimately knew that Doug was right. Besides they would all still be in the mansion so if things got a bit overwhelming then it would be easy to find the others. 

So Jubilee and Theresa went to join Kitty, the Cuckoos disappeared to terrorise some of the kids from their class, Jones joined a game of football in the gardens, Doug decided to take part in a video game tournament and Artie headed to the library. That left John and Bobby. 

They headed back to their room and John dropped onto his bed, slouching against the wall and trying to come up with something that they could do for the rest of the evening. 

“Rogue thinks that I’ve broken up with her for Jubilee,” Bobby suddenly said as he sat down on his own bed. 

So it was apparently time to talk about that.

“That’s not entirely surprising, considering her reaction to the both of you cuddled up this morning,” John pointed out.

Bobby shook his head, frustrated. “I explained about all of that; how we all had to sleep that way in the cell and that it helped with the nightmares last night. She just said that we were back in the mansion now and that everyone has nightmares now and again but they don’t cuddle up with jailbait.”

“’Everyone has nightmares now and again?’ She really said that?” John straightened from his slouch in surprise. 

Bobby just shrugged. 

“Christ, if anyone should understand it’s Rogue. How many times did you have to comfort her after Magneto kidnapped her?” John asked angrily. 

“I think that’s her point,” Bobby told said. “We started dating after that and she thinks it’s because we got so close when I was helping her through the Magneto thing. So now she's decided that if me and Jubilee are comforting each other then the same thing is going to happen with us.”

“That’s ridiculous,” John told him. “You and Rogue didn’t start dating because you helped her; you dated because of that instant crush you had on her. Christ, you were making googly eyes from that very first lesson.”

“I have never made googly eyes at anyone,” Bobby said and then sighed. “Rogue’s just upset and she’s lashing out.”

John shook his head, disappointed with Rogue’s reaction. He might think that Bobby and Rogue would be better off apart but he’d expected them to stay friends; not for Rogue to have an irrational and completely selfish temper tantrum when Bobby needed her to be there for him. 

“I’m sorry, man,” he told Bobby and meant it. 

“S’alright,” Bobby replied and then smirked at John. “Besides, I’ve always got you.”

John laughed. “While I appreciate the sentiment, Drake, I’m definitely lacking in the tits department.”

“And while I appreciate a nice rack,” Bobby shot back. “I’ve always been more of an equal opportunity guy when it comes to that sort of thing.”

John laughed and then stopped when he realised that Bobby hadn’t joined in. 

“Seriously?” He blinked at him in surprise. “I always thought that you were straight as an arrow.”

“I never really felt the need to talk about it before.” Bobby suddenly looked nervous and wouldn’t meet John’s eyes. “But after everything that we just went through, it seems stupid to hide it; we already have to hide so much about ourselves because of people like Stryker.”

John realised how much of a big deal this was. It might have started out as joking around but Bobby was actually coming out to him right now and he was unsure about how John would react. The idea that some part of Bobby might think that John would hate him for being bisexual was unacceptable to John. He deliberately stood up and crossed the space between their beds before he sat down next to Bobby and lounged back against the wall in his usual unconcerned manner. 

“I’d ask if you told Rogue but if you had then she wouldn’t be jealous of _Jubilee_ when you’re rooming with the most handsome guy in the school.” John knocked Bobby’s leg with his own as an encouragement for Bobby to lean back next to him instead of perching worriedly on the edge of the bed.

Bobby did just that with a grateful smile at John. “Huh, when did you and Piotr switch rooms?”

“Oh, you had to throw Piotr at me, you fucker!” John laughed. 

He could’ve argued that he was better looking than anyone at the school except for Piotr Rasputin who was like an actual Greek god come to life. The majority of girls at the school fell over themselves to get his attention; all except Kitty who, ironically, was the one girl whose attention Piotr did want.

“Can’t let that ego of yours get too big, Johnny.” Bobby grinned at him. 

John waggled his eyebrows. “That’s alright, I’ve already got something big enough to compensate.”

Bobby groaned, just as John had known he would, and shoved John away. John snickered and toppled sideways onto Bobby’s pillows.

“Thank you,” Bobby said after a moment and, at John’s raised eyebrow, he clarified. “Thanks for still being your normal obnoxious self and not changing the way you act around me.”

“Drake, I don’t care if you’re bisexual, gay or like to fuck sheep,” John told him as he put his hands behind his head, his legs across Bobby’s lap and generally made himself at home on Bobby’s bed. “You’re my best friend and that’s not going to change. And if you ever tell anyone that I said such a sappy thing, I’ll singe your eyebrows off.”

“They wouldn’t believe me anyway,” Bobby replied with a soft smile that sort of reminded John of that look he kept giving him back at the cell and made him squirm just as much now.

He looked away and broke the moment by saying, “I might actually have a problem with you fucking sheep though.”

Bobby snorted. “How about a woolly mutant?”

“Oh, you totally want to get in McCoy’s pants!” John crowed. 

“He’s not woolly, he’s furry,” Bobby pointed out. “And, eww, no! He’s like an older brother!”

“That’s why you wouldn’t do McCoy? Not the fur?” John asked.

“I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it,” Bobby said. “Would you sleep with a mutant with fur? We already know that you’d do Mystique and she’s got scales.”

The conversation then descended into the usual ‘what mutants do you find weirdly hot?’ conversation that they’d had many times before but never with the field expanded to include guys for Bobby.

At some point, John must’ve dozed off. He hadn’t really had much sleep the night before after all and only a couple of hours that morning. He woke up some time later to find that Bobby was now lying next to him; which was fair enough, it was his bed. However, Bobby wasn’t asleep; he was stroking his fingers down John’s cheek, so gently that he could barely feel it. That expression was back again and John finally recognised it. It was the same expression that Summers gave Dr Grey when she wasn’t looking.

His breath caught and Bobby’s eyes immediately tore away from where he was watching his fingers to stare wide eyed at John. The temperature in the room dropped a couple of degrees when Bobby realised that John was awake.

“Shit!” Bobby immediately pulled his hand away and began to sit up. “John...I wasn’t...I...I didn’t...”

John could already see what was going to happen. Bobby would pull away and things would suddenly turn awkward between them. John couldn’t let that happen, not now.

He reached out and grabbed Bobby’s hand in the way that had become so familiar.

“Don’t,” he said and pulled Bobby back down before he could fully sit up. “It’s okay. Just don’t go. Don’t let it get weird.”

“Are you saying that you don’t think it’s already weird?” Bobby laughed, a little hysterically but he gave in to John and settled back down beside him.

“Yes. No. I don’t know,” John replied. “I just...Christ, Bobby!”

Bobby winced a little but, thankfully, didn’t try to get away again. 

John’s stomach was tying itself up in knots and he felt as though this was one of those moments where making a wrong move would cause a lifetime of regret. 

“How long?” he asked.

John had always been able to read Bobby and so he could see the internal battle play out via Bobby’s facial expressions; pretend that he didn’t know what John was talking about or be truthful.

“I don’t know,” Bobby finally answered, going for the latter option. “I realised it that first night in the cell but it also felt like it had been there for a long time without me realising.”

John nodded and nervously licked at his suddenly dry lips. Bobby’s eyes immediately latched onto the movement and then he blushed when he realised what he was doing. 

“It doesn’t have to change anything,” Bobby told him after a moment. “I’m not going to suddenly jump you or...Shit! You took the news about me being bisexual so well and then I had to go and ruin everything!”

“It’s not ruined,” John said because he wasn’t going to let that happen.

Bobby, however, made a noise of disbelief. “How could it not be? I came out to you and you were so great about it. And then I paw at you while you’re asleep and, like an idiot, manage to let you know that I’m in love with you. So now you’re going to get all strange and uncomfortable around me, even though you’ll pretend that you’re not, and instead of getting to hang out with you and have fun, we’ll end up avoiding each other until we just stop speaking.”

John wanted to make a crack about Bobby’s tendency to get overdramatic but his mind was stuck on the word ‘love’. Bobby _loved_ him? He’d thought that Bobby had just been attracted to him. No one had ever loved him; maybe his mum once upon a time but that was so long ago that John couldn’t even remember it. 

It was probably a mixture of his awe over that discovery and his desire to show Bobby that nothing needed to be ruined, that led to John shifting closer and pressing his lips against Bobby’s.

The kiss was chaste; just dry lips pressed together for a few seconds before John pulled back. 

Bobby looked shell shocked. “John?”

“I don’t know,” John said. “I don’t know what I’m doing. I just...I’m happier around you and I like going to sleep with you holding my hand and that has to mean something, right? Maybe?”

“Maybe.” Bobby nodded slowly, a small glimmer of hope starting to appear in his eyes. “If you want...if you want we could try some stuff and see if you like it. I swear that I’d stop the second you ask me to.”

That actually sounded like a good idea. That way if...probably _when_ John didn’t like it, they’d both know that he’d tried and maybe they could get out of this without losing each other. 

“Okay.” John nodded and those knots in his stomach did a 360° flip at the wonder in Bobby’s expression.

“Okay,” Bobby repeated. He cupped the side of John’s face. “I’m going to kiss you now, okay?”

John rolled his eyes at that. “I’m not a blushing virgin that you need to talk through this, Drake.”

Bobby huffed an amused noise and John shivered as that huff of air puffed over his face. 

“Alright; sorry,” Bobby told him and then leaned in.

It was just a brush of lips, the same as it was before, but this time there was intent behind it and that made a difference. Bobby’s lips moved against his and it felt surprisingly good. Bobby was going too slow and gentle though, as if he expected John to break or, more likely, bolt. So John opened his mouth a little and licked lightly along the seam of Bobby’s lips.

The reaction was instantaneous. Bobby let out a groan, pressed closer and the kiss quickly went from slow and gentle to hot and heavy. Bobby’s body temperature had always been lower then everyone else’s due to his mutation and his skin was cool to the touch but his mouth, in contrast, was so warm that it sent sparks flying along John’s skin and he couldn’t stop himself from pressing ever closer to Bobby as if his own mutation was automatically seeking out more of that heat. 

There was another groan and it took John a moment to realise that it came from him this time. It didn’t matter what he’d told Bobby earlier, this was nothing like any kiss he’d had before. This kiss was fierce and intense and intoxicating.

The need to breathe pushed them apart and John stared down at Bobby, because he’d apparently pushed Bobby onto his back at some point. Bobby looked just as blindsided by that kiss as John felt. 

“Oh my god, Johnny,” he panted. 

“I know,” John replied. “That was...”

“...amazing,” Bobby supplied. “Better than amazing.”

"Reign it in, Princess," John said but he smirked to let Bobby know he was joking. "I'm not sure that I'd go that far."

"Is that right?" Bobby grinned back at him. "Maybe we should try it again so that I can show you."

Bobby reached up, hooked his hand around the back of John's neck and pulled him down into another kiss. It was just as mind blowing as the first one and things were definitely starting to fall into place for John; why he liked Bobby holding his hand, why Bobby's very presence eased something inside of John and definitely why he'd been so relieved when Bobby decided to break up with Rogue. This wasn't the same as what Bobby had said he'd experienced though; this didn't feel like something that had been there previous to their capture, it felt new and exciting. It also felt so right.

Bobby's hand slipped under the back of John's t-shirt and John pulled out of the kiss with a gasp. He'd never found anything particularly sexy about having his back stroked before but the feel of Bobby's cool fingers against his overheated skin was giving John all sorts of thoughts about what those fingers would feel like elsewhere. At some point during that last kiss, John had moved so that he was actually laying on top of Bobby so when his hips bucked at the amazing sensation of those fingers against his skin, he accidentally pushed his groin against Bobby's.

"Fuck," he groaned and leaned down to press their foreheads together.

John had been hard since that first kiss and the feel of Bobby, equally hard against him, started a fire low in his belly. 

"John..." Bobby whined and rolled his hips back up against John's. "If you want to stop...you'd better tell me now."

The only answer John gave was to move so that he was fully straddling Bobby which made it even easier to grind against each other. He'd always been the type of person to throw himself wholeheartedly into something when he made his mind up and, when you added that to the fact that the way Bobby was rocking against him was melting his brain a little, there was no way that John wanted to stop now. 

"Christ, Bobby. Feels so good," he panted.

Bobby just moaned in response, his eyes were closed and his head was thrown back on the pillows. He had his bottom lip caught between his teeth and John couldn't help but lean down and suck on that abused lip, soothing it with his tongue.

"Look at me," he whispered. "Open your eyes, Bobby."

"Can't," Bobby managed to get out. "Don't know if I can control it."

Shit! The very idea that Bobby thought that he could lose control of his power just from this just intensified the tendrils of heat within John.

"You won't hurt me," John told him confidently. "I trust you."

At that, Bobby's eyes flew open and locked onto John's. It was a big enough deal that John trusted Bobby to watch his back, John knew that, but trusting him around his powers was something completely different. Bobby had struggled so much with the ice in the early days of his mutation that he still expected people to be afraid of it. John suddenly realised that telling Bobby he trusted him with his power had invoked as big a reaction as John had when Bobby said he was in love with him. 

Bobby thrust up hard once...twice and then shuddered with a drawn out moan; his eyes locked onto John's the whole time. The desire and affection flickering in those eyes caused John to tumble over that edge right after him.

John panted and grinned as he combed his fingers through his hair and dislodged the ice crystals that had formed on sweat soaked strands; he knew that Bobby wouldn't actually hurt him. Then he collapsed onto Bobby's chest, hissing a little at the chilled body pressed against his even through their t-shirts but the temperature was already beginning to rise so he didn't bother moving.

"God, that was incredible," Bobby said once they'd caught their breath, wrapping his arms around John.

"There's no need to call me 'God'; John will do," John told him and then smiled at Bobby's snort of amusement.

"I thought you'd be having a big gay freak out by now," Bobby admitted.

"Too tired," John replied. "Check in with me later."

"Nuh huh; no sleeping." Bobby prodded him with a stupidly pointy finger. "We've got to get cleaned up first."

John made a face at that because as much as he wanted to fall asleep, Bobby was right. The sticky mess in his jeans was already starting to become uncomfortable and it would only get worse the longer he left it.

"Fine!" He groused and pushed himself up off the bed. "This is all your fault."

"And I'm happy to take the blame," Bobby assured him with the shit eating grin of someone who just got spectacularly laid.

John rolled his eyes but they both knew that he had a similar smile fighting to break free.

The two of them rushed to the bathrooms, thankfully managing to avoid bumping into anyone. Although Megan, the small green girl who talked to plants eyed them suspiciously as they snuck past her spot next to one of the houseplants. They each grabbed a shower stall and half way through his shower, John heard Bobby start to giggle, probably at the ridiculousness of their sneaking through the school because they'd managed to have sex without removing a stitch of clothing. At least, that was the reason that had John start to laugh too.

They were still snickering and generally high on life as they walked back into their room and Bobby grabbed John's hand before he could head to his bed and pulled him into Bobby's instead. So John's freak out didn't happen until much later that night.

He was never going to have a _gay_ freak out because John had always been a live and let live sort of guy. And, yes, it had surprised him to find himself in that position, but it didn't really bother him because the main point was that it was _Bobby_ and not that it was another guy. But that was also the problem: it was Bobby.

As John had told him earlier, Bobby was John's best friend. He was the first person he'd met that didn't back away when he discovered John's power; instead he'd seen the benefits of it, of a friendship between a pyrokinetic and a cryokinetic, because they'd ultimately cancel each other out. Bobby had actually requested that John become his new roommate and John guessed that act had been the first chink in John's armour when it came to Bobby. As angry and defensive as John had been when he arrived at the school, the idea that this guy, who didn’t even know him, would choose him as a roommate kind of blew John’s mind. Not that he’d shown it, choosing instead to snarl at Bobby and throw insults in his direction, just in case it had all been a trick. But it hadn’t been a trick, it had just been Bobby being Bobby.

Slowly but surely John began to drop his shields around his roommate until they became friends and then best friends and now lovers. And John was terrified by that. 

The only positive examples of a relationship that John had ever had in his life was Dr Grey and Summers and, quite frankly, they were no one’s example of a healthy relationship. _He_ was besotted and would clearly do whatever it took to keep her happy while _she_ was very obviously not as besotted and if Summers couldn’t see that Wolverine was two manly growls away from stealing his girlfriend then he was a fool.

All the other examples of relationships that John had known tended to run more in line with his parents. His father was an alcoholic and a bully who’s favourite punching bag was John’s mother. Instead of leaving, her response had been to withdraw into herself until the only memory John had of her was a cold, shell of a woman with empty eyes who just went through the motions of being a wife and mother. To this day, John wasn’t sure if she’d deliberately driven the car into that river or if she just hadn’t cared enough to pay attention to where she was going. Either way, she’d checked out long before she died. 

After that John’s father had decided a fresh start in the USA was needed so packed up and dragged John from everything and everyone he knew in Australia to a new life that turned out to be not that much different to their old life. His father found a job that he hated, booze that he loved and a new punching bag in John. He also got himself a new girlfriend who liked to drink as much as he did and although he didn’t hit this one, probably because she would’ve ripped his balls off with her bare hands if he tried, they had loud, screaming arguments often enough that the local cops knew John by name because of the number of times the neighbours had reported the couple to the police. 

After he’d finally run away from his pathetic excuse for a home, John had moved from place to place, finding shelter wherever he could and stealing what he needed. Then the only couples that he knew of tended to be whores and their pimps or drug addicts coming together in order to pool their resources for their next hit and then screwing their brains out when they were high.

Obviously John knew that happy couples existed but not in his life. He and Bobby may both be mutants but really they were a different species entirely. Bobby came from that type of existence where the happy couples were; where people got together and stayed together and unicorns shat rainbows out of their ass. John came from the type of existence where people got together and then everything went to hell because people like them didn’t deserve their happy endings.

John’s chest felt tight as he studied Bobby sleeping next to him. There was moonlight streaming into the room which was enough for John to make out Bobby's face, completely relaxed and unguarded in a way that he hadn't been since Stryker's men had taken them. John wanted this so badly. He wanted to explore what was between them because if what had happened earlier was them fumbling about then just imagine how much more amazing it could be when they’d had some practise. He wanted to know what Bobby tasted like, to kiss his own taste out of Bobby’s mouth, to argue over who was going to top...all of that. Bobby said that he was in love with John so all of it, everything that John wanted, was actually there on a plate for John to take. But he couldn’t do it.

He wasn’t like Bobby. He was from that other existence and knew, deep in his bones, that if he took what Bobby was offering then he would ruin Bobby; destroy him as surely as his father had done to his mother. And John couldn’t allow that to happen. 

He had promised himself long ago, when he realised just how easy it was to lash out with his fists, and then later that it was even easier with his fire, that he would never become his father. But it was something that he struggled with. Not the drinking because he stayed far away from alcohol; something which always surprised the other students who pegged John as the type of kid who would break into the teacher’s liquor cabinet for kicks. No, John’s struggle was with that darkness that caused him to lash out or fall into occasional bouts of lethargy and cruelty and generally hating the world, because that was what he really had in common with his father.

He’d begun to hope over the past couple of years at Xavier’s that maybe he could control his power and his temper. But those hopes had been dashed the moment he saw what he’d done to Blister Face. His anger had led John to kill the man in a truly horrific fashion and that far surpassed anything his father had done. Bobby deserved so much better than someone like him.

John sighed and turned to stare up at the ceiling. He should never have let this go as far as it had. He remembered that tenuous moment from earlier when he knew that he had to make the right decision or face a lifetime of regret. He hadn’t made the right decision. 

He should’ve talked to Bobby, explained that he didn’t want him in that way but that he wouldn’t let it destroy their friendship; things might have been awkward for a while but probably not as awkward as he’d thought and likely something that they could get over pretty quickly. But he’d panicked at the thought of _any_ awkwardness at all, jumped in feet first and then let his hormones dictate his actions. Now he really had destroyed their friendship because he had to put a stop to this before he tainted Bobby and his inherent goodness, which was going to hurt and confuse Bobby and ultimately drive him away. 

And not just him; John had no illusions about who the rest of the Misfits would side with when forced to choose between him and Bobby.

The stab of pain he felt at that was almost as bad as the one he felt at knowing he had to give Bobby up. They may have been forced together by something horrible but the bond he felt to the rest of the group was strong and he really had begun to think of them as family. He should have known better, really. 

John slowly untangled himself from Bobby without waking him and slid out of the bed. His thoughts were driving him crazy and he needed to be distracted for a while before he had to deal with Bobby. Despite knowing that he was going to lose them soon, or maybe because he knew that, John headed to the rec room where he guessed at least a few of the Misfits would be driven due to their continuing nightmares.

As expected, Jones, Jubilee, Doug and Theresa were tangled on the sofa. They looked up with smiles when John walked into the room. 

“Hey!” Theresa said, then her eyes flicked to look over his shoulder. “Where’s Bobby?”

John’s stomach clenched. Yeah, they would definitely take Bobby’s side.

“We’re not joined at the hip,” he snapped and dropped into a nearby armchair.

He instantly felt bad when he saw the hurt expression on Theresa’s face; of all of them, she was the one who would really take a bad word to heart.

“Who pissed on your cornflakes?” Jubilee glared at him and put a comforting arm around Theresa.

“Sorry,” he apologised to Theresa, genuinely meaning it. “Bad night.”

He could see that he was instantly forgiven because they all assumed he was talking about his own nightmares. He felt bad again but not enough to correct them; he wanted to soak this up while he still had it, even though he knew that would make it hurt all the more when they left him.

At this time of night, they were back to the infomercials again and John made a note to himself to try and talk the Professor into getting Netflix before they could all start to quote these ridiculous infomercials by heart. They were entertaining enough for now though and by the time the Cuckoos made an appearance, they were all adding their own commentary to the one about an Extreme Zumba DVD.

As normal, Irma decided to use John as her own personal chair but she cuddled in close to him without saying a word. He frowned down at her, because she hadn’t been this clingy in a few days, and now that he was studying her, he could see dried tear tracks on her face and that her hands had a slight tremble. 

“Bad dream?” He asked quietly enough that he didn’t draw the attention of the others. “Worse than last night?”

She nodded and bit her lip, avoiding his eyes but he gently placed a finger under her chin and tilted her face so she’d look at him.

“Do you want to talk about it? We can go to the kitchen and raid Bobby’s ice-cream if you want,” he said and then smiled at her when she nodded again.

The others gave them a curious look as they left, except for Phoebe and Celeste who obviously knew exactly what was going on. John subtly shook his head at them to make sure that they stayed put and left him and Irma alone for a while.

Irma climbed onto the stool next to the kitchen table while John reached back into the far reaches of the freezer where he knew Bobby’s ice cream was, hidden inside an old box that had once contained those disgusting cubes of creamed spinach.

“You understand that this never happened, right?” he said, conversationally, as he spooned some of the ice cream into a couple of bowls. “If Bobby asks, you have no idea where his ice cream went and we have to both agree, here and now, that we deny, deny, deny right to the grave.”

She gave him a faint smile, which was an improvement, and linked her pinkie finger with his to seal the deal. Obviously, John was going to replace the ice-cream before Bobby noticed anyway and they both knew that but it lightened the atmosphere a little, which had been his intention. 

They silently sat at that table and ate the ice cream until Irma felt ready to talk.

“I dreamed that we didn’t manage to escape,” she finally admitted. “They killed you and Bobby when you tried and then brought you back to cell so that we could see what they’d done to you. Then they took Theresa and Artie to test them, except this time we could hear what they were doing to them.”

John blinked at her. He’d expected the dream to be about Blister Face and that knife to her throat not him and Bobby.

“Hey.” He reached across the table and took her hand in his own.

He was planning on telling her that he and Bobby were fine and they were safe now but when he touched her, his head was flooded with the images from her dream.

“John? John, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to.” 

John stayed still and carefully breathed through the weird and very intense ordeal of experiencing someone else’s dream as if it had been his own. He shook his head when he realised that at some point he’d fallen off his stool and was now sitting on the floor. 

“I’m sorry, John. I have trouble controlling the telepathy sometimes.” Irma sounded as though she was crying. “Don’t hate me; I didn’t do it on purpose.”

He managed to look at her, crouched in front of him now, and saw that she did indeed have tears streaming down her face. 

“I could never hate you, Pumpkin,” he managed to tell her.

Then he opened his arms and she didn’t even hesitate before diving into his lap and hiding her face in his shoulder as she sobbed. John stroked her back and rocked her through it, thinking back to the times he’d done this in the cell. He glanced up from her and noticed her sisters standing in the doorway, sorrow etched on their faces as they stared at Irma. It had to be so hard for them too; they could obviously see everything she’d been through and what she was dreaming about but because they hadn’t experienced it themselves, they were powerless to help her. John caught their eyes and tapped his temple. Their eyes widened a little at the permission and then he felt that odd nudge he always experienced inside his head when a telepath was reading his thoughts. He shrugged that off and instead concentrated on how much he cared for Irma and how he was going to do everything in his power to help her. They smiled at him, message received, and gave Irma one last concerned look before they left her and returned to the rec room.

“I want you to listen to me, Irma,” he said quietly to the sobbing girl when they’d been left alone again. “I want you to know how fucking proud I am of you. You’ve been so strong through all of this...”

“No, I was such a baby when we were first taken.” She lifted her head and hiccupped as her sobs began to slow. “I tried to be strong after, to make up for it but, look, now I’m back to being a big baby again.”

John frowned at that. “You weren’t a baby; none of us thought that. We all lost our powers and knew how horrible that felt and you had it worse than any of us because you lost Phoebe and Celeste too. But you pushed that aside so that you could help us and work with us and _that’s_ why you’re one of the strongest people I know.”

“Really?” She blinked at him, tears still clinging to her eyelashes but she didn’t look as shattered anymore. 

“Really.” John nodded. “We’re all having nightmares, Pumpkin, and that doesn’t make any of us babies, it makes us survivors and we’ll survive this too. You don’t have to hide the fact that you’re upset from any of us, I promise. And if you just want to talk to me then there’s plenty more of Bobby’s ice cream left to steal in that freezer.”

She giggled and held out her pinkie again to link with his. After they’d made that deal she leaned her head back onto his shoulder.

“Do you want to talk about the nightmare?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Not really. You already saw it.”

“Okay, let me know if you change your mind,” he told her and settled against the leg of the chair.

A squeak of a shoe against the polished floor had Irma stiffening in John’s arms and caused John to look back towards the doorway. He’d been expecting one of the other misfits to have come to check on them but instead found himself looking at Summers.

“Sorry,” the man said. “I wanted a glass of water; I’ll be out of your hair in a moment.”

The fact that Summers didn’t look at all surprised to find John sitting on kitchen floor comforting a small child lead John to suspect that he’d been there for a while and had deliberately squeaked his foot against the floor to alert them to his presence without frightening them. 

“Is that from Bobby’s stash?” Summers nodded towards them and, for the first time, John noticed the smashed bowl and quickly melting ice cream on the floor beside him. He must have knocked it off the table when he fell.

“What’s it to you?” John asked harshly but Summers didn’t flinch.

Instead he gave them the shadow of a smile. “Just thinking that should probably be cleaned up before he notices. Go on back to the rec room; I was having trouble sleeping anyway so maybe a spot of cleaning will help me.”

John narrowed his eyes, wondering if Summers had thrown that line about not sleeping at them as a way of ingratiating himself with them after what had happened at the base. But Summers’ expression didn’t change and eventually John shrugged. 

“Knock yourself out,” he told Summers and prodded Irma into moving so that he could climb back to his feet. 

They left Summers to do ‘a spot of cleaning’ and made their way back to the rec room. John pulled Irma to a stop before they got there though.

“I meant what I said in the kitchen,” he told her. “I will always make time for you if you need me and that’s not going to change even if all the rest of this stuff does.”

“What stuff?” Irma asked. “The Misfits? We’re not going to change.”

“We might,” John answered, squirming a little at her frown but trusting that she wouldn’t read his thoughts. “But our deal won’t.”

He needed to let her know that. If he was the only one that she felt comfortable talking to then he didn’t want to leave her high and dry when the group inevitably moved away from him.

It didn’t really surprise him that the rest of the Misfits had made their way to the rec room during their absence; including Bobby who raised an eyebrow at John, clearly asking why he’d left Bobby alone in bed like that. John quickly looked away from him and grabbed a bean bag on the other side of the group, which turned out to be a mistake because then he was facing Bobby who was now shooting him confused looks because there was a perfectly good empty seat beside him.

John turned his head and forced his attention back to the TV instead, staring blindly at whatever crap they were trying to hawk now and ignored the prickling feeling on his neck that told him Bobby was watching him. If the others noticed anything was awry, they didn’t mention it, so John just kept staring at the TV right up until Bobby stood, probably having had enough of John ignoring his presence.

“I’m going to make some coffee. Anybody want any?”

John felt his eyes widen as he thought about the fact that Bobby’s ice cream that he didn’t let anyone touch, was currently covering the kitchen floor. He glanced at Irma, snuggled between her sisters, but she just looked up at Bobby.

“You don’t want to go to the kitchen right now,” she told Bobby without missing a beat. “Mr Summers is in there, cleaning up a storm.”

Bobby frowned. “Scott’s cleaning the kitchen? At four in the morning?”

“Apparently he can’t sleep,” Irma informed him and Doug gave an unamused snort.

“Good. I hope he’s feeling too guilty to sleep,” he said and Jubilee rubbed his shoulder in an attempt to get him to relax again. 

“You don’t need to be a telepath to know that he wants to talk about what happened,” Irma continued and John was impressed at her ability to twist the truth a little so that she wasn’t actually lying. “That’s why we got out of there quickly.”

Bobby pulled a face at the idea of talking things through with Summers because none of them had forgiven him yet and sat back down. 

As happened the night before, the Misfits fell asleep one by one until just John and Bobby were still awake. 

“You’re ignoring me,” Bobby said quietly.

“I’m not ignoring you. I’m just interested in this...” he studied the infomercial properly and then winced. “...body hair removal kit.”

Bobby chuckled but there wasn’t any humour in it. “You’re having your freak out aren’t you? That’s okay, I can wait.”

And he probably would, that was the thing. He’d wait patiently for John to get over his apparent gay break down because that’s the kind of guy he was. John couldn’t let him do that anymore than he could let himself fall for Bobby and pollute him with his issues. 

“Don’t,” he told him lowly. “There’s no need to wait. I’m not freaking out, I’ve just realised that it was a mistake.”

In order to try and convince Bobby that what he was saying was true, John made himself actually look Bobby in the eye. 

Bobby frowned and studied his face and then said, uncertainly, “You don’t mean that.”

“I do,” John said. “I’m sorry, Bobby, I really am. I just got caught up in the moment. I can’t..." He huffed and raked his fingers through his hair. "...it’s not going to happen again.”

Bobby’s face fell and John instantly wanted to take it back but he stayed firm knowing that it might hurt Bobby now but it would save him a whole heap of pain in the long run.

“I’m sorry,” John repeated and then, with a last look at the little group of Misfits, he quietly stood up and left the rec room. 

He didn’t exactly know where he was going. He couldn’t head back to his room because it was Bobby’s room too and he figured he should just stay away from Bobby for a few days. Instead he wandered around the mansion, grateful that it was starting to lighten up outside so the corridors weren’t dim enough to cause flashbacks to the night the mansion was stormed. He wandered aimlessly until he found himself on the top floor of the mansion where no one tended to go; the school wasn’t full enough to necessitate the rooms up there and it was kind of dusty and creepy. Rumours had it that it was haunted. 

John had never believed in ghosts and he figured that a little exploring would be a good way to pass the time and distract him from the thoughts that wanted him to return to Bobby. He began to open the doorways and inspect what was found inside. It was pretty disappointing really. Most of the rooms were filled with carefully marked boxes; items belonging to past students or current students that already had too much stuff filling up their rooms. Other rooms were filled with boxes of clothes and other items that those new students who turned up with nothing might need. John had always wondered where the items that the Professor gave him that first month had come from. He’d assumed they’d been donated but it turned out that the school bought in bulk and kept it all up on the top floor, ready and waiting for when the next poor student with shoes held together only by tape showed up. 

It took John a good three or four hours of exploring before he hit the jackpot. There was a library up there. It was only a small one, tucked away and forgotten, but it was filled floor to ceiling by all manner of books which, in stark contrast to the main library downstairs, were in no discernible order. It reminded John of those old, overstuffed, bookshops tucked away in side streets. John used to sneak into them now and again just to smell that amazing old bookshop smell and remind himself that there were still some things in life that could make him smile. More often than not, he was chased out of the shops fairly quickly but there was one particular owner who would let him stay and warm up, then he'd slip him one of the old battered books that was a bit too damaged to sell but was still readable. John used to hoard those books for as long as he could, greedily reading them over and over again, until they were inevitably stolen or he was kicked out of whatever building he was sleeping in and didn’t have time to take his meagre amount of belongings with him. 

He ran his finger along a shelf and then grabbed a book without even reading the title and settled down onto a dusty old armchair and began to read. He only stopped when he got too hungry to ignore his grumbling stomach any longer. So he marked his spot, left the book on the chair and snuck downstairs to grab some food. He automatically bypassed the rec room, although he could hear Jubilee loudly holding court, and headed straight to the dining room. Thankfully it was almost empty, the dinnertime rush already passed, so he could pile some food onto a plate and then sneak back to the secret library again. 

Several hours later a bone-chilling scream woke John up and he realised that not only had that scream come from him but that he must have fallen asleep while still reading in the small library. He fell back against the chair, sneezing when that sent up a cloud of dust, but he couldn’t stop the memories of his nightmare from bombarding him. He’d dreamed that Bobby had died back at Stryker’s base. That he’d been cut open and his flesh peeled back just as Blister Face had promised they’d do to John. Then John had seen the blood on his hands and the knife he was holding and realised that he’d been the one to do that to Bobby. 

It didn’t take a psychiatrist to figure out the meaning behind that particular dream.

John’s hands shook as he leaned down and picked up the book he’d dropped when he’d fallen asleep. He wanted nothing more than to seek out the Misfits and take comfort from being in their presence. Instead he closed his eyes and just tried to breathe, tried to use those techniques that Dr Grey taught him back when he struggled to maintain control over the fire he manipulated.

Once again his thoughts drifted to Bobby as they had so many times during that day of hiding. Did he hate John yet or was he still holding out hope that John would come to his senses? Maybe he’d taken this as a sign he’d been too hasty with Rogue and decide that he’d give them another go. But Bobby had told John that he was in love with him so maybe not. Then again, Bobby had thought that he loved Rogue less than a month ago...

These thoughts kept circling in his mind, driving him crazy until he couldn't stay still anymore; he needed to do something, _anything_ , to distract himself from them. He opened the door of the library; again not quite sure where he was going to go, just that it wouldn't be downstairs to the rec room. He startled badly when he made out a figure of someone in the dark corridor outside and he had a ball of flame in his hand, ready to defend himself, before he realised it was Bobby, sitting on the floor and leaning on the door opposite.

"What the fuck, Bobby? I almost burned your ass," John exclaimed. "What are you doing out here?"

"Waiting for you," Bobby replied. "I'm sitting in a dark corridor, fighting off memories of the night Stryker's soldiers invaded because you're being an asshole."

"I didn't ask you to do that," John pointed out even though he'd instantly felt guilty. "In fact I distinctly remember telling you not to wait for me. How did you even know where I was?"

"I asked the Cuckoos. Irma refused to tell me anything but Celeste admitted that they were all worried about you and told me where you were hiding," Bobby told him. "And, of course, you chose to hide on the haunted floor just to make things more difficult."

John wondered if using telepathy to figure out where he was counted as reading him but ultimately decided that he didn't care right now. "I told you..."

"I know what you told me, John," Bobby cut him off. "And I believed it for about an hour before I remembered just who I'm dealing with here; the King of Pushing-People-Away-when-they-Get-Too -Close. I guess you'd lulled me into a false sense of security when you allowed the Misfits in but that was a completely different set of circumstances, wasn't it?"

"I'm not the King of..." John bit off his automatic protest and shook his head in frustration. "Why can't you just accept that it was a mistake, Bobby? Drawing it out like this is just going to hurt you more."

Bobby suddenly tilted his head to study John as if John had said something interesting and then understanding dawned on his face.

"That's what you're doing," Bobby whispered, as if to himself, then climbed to his feet without taking his eyes of John. "You're not protecting yourself from getting hurt...you're protecting me from being hurt by you."

John took a step back with a mental curse; he'd forgotten that Bobby could read John just as well as John could read him. "Bobby..."

"Why? You wouldn't hurt me, I know you wouldn't," Bobby persisted, looking confused. 

John sighed and stopped trying to pretend Bobby hadn't figured him out. "No, you don't. You don't know that because I could, Bobby; so easily."

"You could but you won't," Bobby insisted. "I know you, John. You've been my best friend for years and I know that you would do anything to keep the people you care about from being hurt which is why you're pulling this self sacrificing crap right now. Don't you get it? The very fact that you're doing this _proves_ that you won't hurt me, not intentionally."

By this time John had completely backed up into the library and Bobby had followed him.

"You don't understand," John tried. "It might not be intentional. He didn't start out with the intention of hurting her but he did it anyway."

"Who?" Bobby asked and when John looked away instead of answering, he reached out and cupped John's face. "Who are you talking about? Your parents?"

John had never told Bobby about his parents except to say that his mother was dead and his father was an asshole. But Bobby had seen the scars on John's body over the years and had to have guessed that they'd been received when he was a kid. John knew that it wouldn't take much of a leap for Bobby to have figured out that they came from one of his parents. Bobby had never asked or pushed for John to tell him, something which John had always been grateful for, but Bobby was a smart guy so it didn't surprise John that he had immediately figured out who John was talking about.

"My grandmother told me that they were happy once. Just a normal happy couple who were in love." John's heart felt like it was beating out of his chest as, for the first time, he began to confide in someone about his parents. "But then he changed. He got mean and she was too kind hearted to leave him and so she changed too."

"We're not them," Bobby told him firmly. "Do you honestly think that I wouldn't defend myself, even against you? You hit me, John, and you'd better believe that I'll hit you back. But I don't think that you would hit me, not like that, because...You're. Not. Him. You're better than him. The fact that you're tying yourself up in knots right now, proves that."

John frowned, wanting to believe what Bobby was saying but unable to do it. "I can’t...”

“No!” Bobby took a final step forward so that their chests were touching. “You’ve had your go and you ran away so it’s my turn now. Tell me right now that you don’t want this, _truly_ don’t want this, and I’ll accept that and leave you alone. But if you’re just trying to protect me then I’m not stopping until you believe that you’re a good guy who deserves this.”

“I don’t want this,” John said but winced at the crack in his voice.

“Pathetic,” Bobby told him with a small smile. “Stephanie can lie better than that.”

Considering that a weird orange light show happened around Stephanie every time she lied, that was saying a lot. 

“I guess that I’m going with the not stopping option.” Bobby pushed John back against the shelves and then plastered himself against John’s front, slipping his thigh between John’s legs. As Bobby’s thigh pressed up against him, John’s head fell back against the books and he gave a soft groan. 

“Distracting me with sex isn’t going to solve the problem,” he managed to say. 

Bobby gave him lewd grin. “It will if I just don’t stop distracting you.”

John rolled his eyes and couldn’t help but give an amused huff at Bobby’s expression. “Bobby...”

Bobby sighed and turned serious again. “You told me that you trust me with my powers and I know that you trust me in a fight so trust me with this too, okay? I love you, John, and I know what I’m getting into.”

When Bobby leaned in to kiss him, John didn’t try to stop him. He didn’t know if it was the effect of that ‘L word’ again, how horrible the last day had been without Bobby or the fact that he realised he really did trust Bobby in everything. It was probably a mixture of all three that had him giving in to the other guy for now.

As soon as he felt John’s acquiescence, Bobby made a satisfied sound in the back of his throat as he licked into John’s mouth. He pressed against John with his thigh again until John began to rock back against him, chasing more of that delicious sensation.

When they broke the kiss, Bobby buried his head in John’s neck with a moan before he proceeded to lick, suck and nip his way from below John’s ear to his shoulder and then back again. 

“Bobby...oh god!” John panted with his head leaning back against the books. “We can’t do this fully clothed again...it’s going to become some kind of kink.”

Bobby chuckled lowly against John’s skin, causing his hips to buck. “Don’t worry, I’ve got an idea.”

When Bobby dropped to his knees, John swallowed hard. And when Bobby leaned forward and nuzzled John through his pants before looking back up at John with hunger in his eyes, John had to close his own eyes and just breathe for a moment. 

The sound of John’s zipper being lowered echoed loudly in the small room and John’s head twisted to look at the door before he frowned and wondered just when Bobby had closed it. Then Bobby pushed John’s pants out of the way and gave him one long deliberate lick that sent all further thoughts of doors flying from John’s mind. 

“Jesus!” John cursed, his hands automatically tangling themselves in Bobby’s hair; not to direct him but just to be able to use that touch to ground himself a little.

“There’s no need to call me, Jesus; Bobby will do,” Bobby parroted back at him and John couldn’t hold back his laughter at the reminder of his own words.

Bobby gave him a pleased look before returning to the task at hand.

The groan that John gave when Bobby took him into his mouth was so loud that he had to move one hand from Bobby’s hair to cover his mouth and try to stifle the noises Bobby was drawing out of him. It was hardly John’s first blowjob, it wasn't even his first one from a mutant but he had never felt anything like this. If he had thought Bobby's mouth felt hot when they were kissing then it now felt feverish and John had to lock his knees to hold him in place because everything in him craved more of that exquisite heat. 

When Bobby's tongue suddenly turned cool against him John was glad that his hand was already covering his mouth because the yell he gave would have woken up half the mansion. Bobby chuckled evilly and the vibrations of that added to the tsunami of sensations mingling within John, driving him ever higher.

"F...fucker!" He gasped and Bobby backed off long enough to reply.

"You love it!"

And John did. The way that Bobby kept alternating his temperature between hot and cold, even sometimes managing to do both at the same time, kept John dancing along that edge with sparks of pleasure shooting along his spine in a way he'd never experienced before. The grip John still had on Bobby's hair had to be painful by this point but every time John tried to loosen his fist, Bobby would do something else that made John tense all over again. 

Finally, Bobby apparently decided to take pity on John and took him as deep as he could, letting John fall over that edge with another muffled yell. 

John slid down the bookcase until he was sitting on the floor because his legs had definitely decided to stop working. He looked at Bobby, red faced and dishevelled with swollen lips and he couldn’t help but drag the guy closer to kiss him. Bobby whined a little as John chased the taste of himself and tried to push himself closer to John in order to get some relief of his own. John breathlessly chuckled and pulled Bobby fully onto his lap and, without breaking the kiss, fumbled Bobby's pants open. Bobby broke the kiss, grabbed John's hand and then began to lick the palm in lieu of any lubrication and John made a broken sound at that and could only stare at Bobby for a moment before Bobby's impatient shuffling brought John's attention back to what he'd been doing. 

Pulling Bobby free from his pants, John had a split second panic because he really wasn't sure what he was doing but then just decided to go for what had always felt good to _him_. It turned out to be a good decision when Bobby moaned and hauled John into another kiss, his hands restlessly grabbing at John as if he wasn't sure where he wanted to touch him the most. He was clearly already worked up from what he'd done to John so John wasn't surprised when Bobby quickly started to shake and all it took was a twist of John's hand for Bobby to completely fall apart, biting John's shoulder to stop from shouting out loud.

Bobby slumped forward onto John who, himself, was only being held up by the bookshelf. John smiled tiredly to himself when Bobby was too out of it to even protest the fact that John wiped his hand clean on Bobby's t-shirt; he just wrinkled his nose a little and then went back to panting against John's neck.

"Dammit!" Bobby said when he'd managed to get his breathing under control enough to speak. "That wasn't the plan. I was supposed to get you worked up enough that I could drag you back to our room to fuck me. I guess we'll just have to do that later."

John closed his eyes and gave another small groan at the image that created in his mind. "I swear that no one would believe your complete lack of shame when it comes to sex. They probably think that you're all fumbling and virginal."

Bobby laughed. "It's all part of my evil plan to stop you from over thinking things and running away again; keep you off balance and constantly horny."

John grew silent at the reminder of why he'd put a stop to this in the first place. Bobby seemed to realise what he'd said and winced.

"Shit! John..."

But John shook his head and stopped him. 

"You have to promise me that at the first sign that I'm getting...abusive." He stumbled over the word a little because although he knew that's what his father was, he'd never actually assigned that word to him before, tending to stick to insults instead. "At that first sign, whether it’s with my fists or my fire, you’ll stop me or you’ll leave me. _Promise me_."

Bobby looked relieved that John was finally agreeing to try this relationship and instantly agreed to the stipulation. "Okay; I promise. You try anything and I'll ice your ass so fast that your head will spin; I swear."

John studied Bobby carefully to make sure that he meant what he said and, despite his lingering doubts, he nodded at Bobby who smiled back at him. 

They stayed where they were for a while, huddled together in a heap on the floor, before Bobby suddenly looked around.

"What the hell is this place, anyway?"

John snickered at the fact it had taken that long for Bobby to get his faculties back. 

"It's called a library, Drake. It's a sort of house for books." John cursed when Bobby poked him hard in the side but relented. "I think it was the Professor's personal library when he was younger. A lot of the books have 'Charles' written inside the jacket. A few of them have 'Raven' too but I don't know who that is."

"Huh!" Bobby looked around with renewed interest. "I think that Jean told me about this place once. She said that she used to spend hours in here reading when she was a student. It's pretty nice."

"Until we desecrated it," John drawled. "I think I'll come back though, it's a nice place to get away when things get too much."

Bobby smiled. "You say that no one would believe what I'm like in bed, well no one would believe _me_ if I told them about your obsession with books."

"That's because I'm a bad boy with a reputation," John told him. "Whereas you are a goody two shoes who everyone thinks is a complete pushover."

"Yeah, well, this goody two shoes just blew your mind, Allerdyce." Bobby smirked, obviously pleased with the pun.

"Yeah, you did," John agreed. "Where the fuck did you learn to do that anyway?"

"Umm...there was a guy back in Boston when I went home last year," Bobby admitted and John wondered at the guilty look on Bobby's face until he remembered Rogue. "It was just before me and Rogue finally decided to give dating a try but we were already kind of unofficially dating. So it wasn't technically cheating..."

"But you've felt guilty about it all the same because you're you," John guessed and shook his head in amusement when Bobby nodded. "Was the guy a mutant too?"

"No. Why? Oh! The temperature thing?" Bobby gave John a sly look. "That was just for you. I thought that you'd like it."

John hummed his agreement. "I really did. That might be a new kink that I didn't even know existed."

"As well as the fact that we've still barely taken any clothes off," Bobby pointed out.

"It is Saturday, right?" John gave Bobby a sultry look. "So why don't we check in with the Misfits then go back to our room, get some sleep and then spend the rest of the day naked and finding out what other kinks we enjoy?"

"Now there's a plan I could get behind," Bobby told him and climbed off John before pulling John to his feet too. “And, just so you know, I’m not letting you out of my sight for a few days in case you run again.”

Personally, John thought it was probably a matter of _when_ he ran again but he’d already let Bobby know that he’d come back here so that Bobby could find him.

After a brief stop at the bathroom for a quick shower and another at their room for a change of clothes, the boys headed to the rec room. It was getting close to breakfast so all of the Misfits were in there by this time. Bobby went to the kitchen to get a coffee for them both while John faced the music.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in," Jubilee sneered when she noticed John. "Decided that we're good enough to hang out with again?"

"Jubilee!" Theresa rebuked her. "Are you okay, John?"

John assured her that he was as he studied Jubilee. She hadn't really meant what she'd said. John understood the instinctive reaction of kids like the two of them to go on the defensive if they think someone they care about is going to leave them; especially because they didn't let themselves care about people very often. He bet that she'd been snapping and snarking at the entire group for the entire past day as a result of John's disappearing act. She was already sitting by herself in one of the armchairs when she usually sprawled across the sofa with everyone else. John immediately felt guilty that he'd caused her to draw into herself like that when she'd clearly been enjoying being part of a group, despite how that group had come together. 

He grabbed a cushion and dropped it on the floor next to Jubilee's chair before sitting on it and leaning back next to her legs. She stiffened when John wrapped a hand around her ankle but slowly relaxed again when he kept his grip loose and made it clear that it was just a comfort gesture.

"I'm sorry I checked out yesterday," he told her, keeping his voice low so that she knew this was a conversation just for the two of them. "I had some things to work through. A lot of things to work through to be honest; stuff that I've tried to keep buried for years."

She stared at him silently for a long while then said, "You could have come to us, even if it was just to tell us why you needed a break so that we knew you'd be back. You shouldn't have just left like that."

"I know," John said. "It sort of snuck up on me out of nowhere and then I didn't think that I would be back. I thought you'd all be better off without me. Basically, I freaked and ran."

Jubilee sighed. "Yeah, okay, I know what that last bit's like."

"I know," John told her and they shared a look that acknowledged their mutual shitty lives before Xavier's school. 

She punched his shoulder, without much weight behind it. "Don't do it again. Or I might not be so forgiving. Because we're not better off without you, we need you just as much as you need us."

"Understood," John said, although he knew that Jubilee didn't miss the fact that he hadn't promised not to do it again because it was a promise that he couldn’t keep, not as his relationship with Bobby continued.

She didn't comment on that though, instead she sent him a sly look. "Does this freak out have anything to do with Bobby's theatrical levels of moping yesterday and the state your neck is in right now?"

John's hand immediately flew to his neck. He'd completely forgotten about Bobby's neck fixation earlier. Shit, he probably had a pretty nice bite mark on his shoulder too. Of course John's reaction caused everyone to pay attention, especially when Jubilee started giggling.

"Oh god!" He groaned and dropped his head into his hands as the jeering began.

When Bobby walked into the room with their coffees everyone burst out laughing and Doug hung over the back of the sofa to say, 

"We didn't know you were a vampire, Bobby."

Theresa grinned. "You've done a real number on John's neck."

John couldn’t bring himself to be surprised that they’d all figured it out. If anyone could it would be the rest of the Misfits. So he just shook his head at the smug look on Bobby's face.

"There's no need to look so proud," John told him. " _You_ get to explain it during our next check-up with Dr Grey. Which I believe is tomorrow."

The smile fell off Bobby's face immediately at that prospect and the entire group fell about laughing.

John watched them all and was fiercely proud of how far they'd all come in the past few days. They obviously still had a long way to go and he'd caught the teachers watching them worriedly at times but John had no doubt that they'd get there. He felt an ache within him at the idea that he'd almost given this all up and he hoped with everything he had that Bobby was right about him and that he'd get to keep it. 

In that weird way Bobby had of being able to tell what John was thinking, he joined John on the cushion and tangled their hands together; squeezing tight as if to convey that he wasn't going to let John go.

\-----

There was another mutant crisis somewhere in the world and John stood by the rec room window as he watched the X-Jet take off. He stiffened slightly as Summers came and stood beside him; his instinctive reaction to the man had lessened over the past few months but it still hadn't gone completely. John knew that it would take a fair while longer for that to happen.

"You miss going with them?" he asked quietly.

Summers tilted his head thoughtfully. "Not as much as I thought I would."

A few days after the Misfits had started back to classes, the Professor and the rest of the teachers had decided enough time had passed that the kids could handle a group therapy session. Saying that it hadn't gone well was pretty much the understatement of the year.

Perhaps it had been a mistake, making the Professor and Dr Grey promise not to read their minds during the session because without that, they couldn't understand why the group wasn't reacting to the teachers’ promises that the X-Men would stop such a horrible thing from happening again and would always protect them and a myriad of other pointless promises. It took until Storm had stated that their experience would help all of them to become stronger X-Men one day for one of the Misfits to lose it and to John's eternal surprise, it hadn't been him.

John didn't think that he'd ever seen Bobby so angry, the teachers definitely hadn't and the shock on their faces when Bobby took them to task had been a thing of beauty. Because they really hadn't understood that the kids blamed _them_ ; that even more than they hated Stryker, they hated the teachers for putting them in that position in the first place. 

No, strike that, Summers had understood it. That's why when Bobby had furiously pointed out to the Professor and the others just how much danger they were putting the kids in by constantly leaving them alone to go on their _X-Missions_ , Summers had taken Bobby's side against the teacher's protests. He'd not only taken their side, he'd immediately resigned from the X-Men so that he could stay behind and help keep the kids safe. 

At first they thought it was a token gesture and that he was just trying to get back on their good sides but, as time had gone on, he'd stayed an ex-X-Man, as Artie had named him. And it really did help, having a fully combat trained mutant around the school on the nights when the other teachers left. The Misfits obviously never slept on the nights when the X-Men were gone and Summers would always stop and join them in the rec room in between patrols. He confided in them about the nightmares that he’d been suffering since Stryker’s base too and truly listened to them about theirs. Slowly but surely it had opened a path to repairing their relationship with him a little.

Wolverine had also sided with the Misfits, snorting derisively at Dr Grey’s protests that the kids hadn't really been alone that night because he knew that a feral loner with zero experience with children hadn't been adequate protection for an entire school. Whenever he dropped by, which seemed to be more often than before, he'd taken it upon himself to teach them all how to fight and not just rely on their powers. 

All of this had helped with the nightmares more than the weekly therapy sessions with the Professor, as far as John was concerned. But the Professor was making an effort too; he'd ramped up the security at the school and had hired Kurt to assist Scott with the night time patrols. He'd also figured out/read/realised, whatever it was that telepaths did, that John had discovered the secret library on the top floor. He'd told John that he was more than welcome to use the room as his own private library and a hideaway if he needed it; although he requested that he and Bobby desist from using it for other activities. Bobby had blushed to the shade of a tomato when John told him that. 

“Don’t you have plans tonight?” Summers asked, turning to look at John.

“I did, before this.” John indicated in the direction that the jet had gone.

It was the day before Bobby’s birthday and John had wanted to do something... _special_ sounded too hokey but something just for them. He’d never had boyfriend before, or a girlfriend really for that matter, and he’d been looking forward to spoiling Bobby a little as both a birthday present and a thank you for sticking with him through the past few months. John knew that he wasn’t the easiest person to be in a relationship with and he’d run from it more than once, but he always made sure to hide out in the library so that Bobby could find him and he always knew that Bobby would wait until John opened the library door before pushing him. 

“Logan’s in town so, between him, Kurt and me, we have this covered,” Summers told him. “Your Misfits will be fine as long as they get to celebrate with Bobby tomorrow. You should go ahead, John. You both deserve it.”

John hesitated. Summers was right that the Misfits would be fine with him and Bobby missing that one night. In fact the Cuckoos would probably sulk all night if they did show up to the rec room because they’d helped John with planning the surprise. Sort of. Mainly it had been the three of them throwing out grandiose and very girly ideas filled with candles and fairy lights and roses and a gourmet meal for two, while he tried to reign them in. Eventually they all hit upon a plan that was much more suited to John and Bobby. Then they’d had to pull in the rest of the Misfits to get everything set up so, now that John was thinking about it, they’d probably all sulk if John and Bobby showed up to the rec room that night and put all their efforts to waste. 

“You do know that Jubilee and Theresa are planning on baking Bobby a birthday cake tonight, right?” Summers asked and John’s eyes widened in horror as he remembered what happened the last time someone let those two near a stove. 

“Yeah, I think I might go and do those plans after all,” John said and Summers chuckled.

“Good choice,” he agreed and, as John moved away, he added, “Don’t forget about Logan though, you might want to keep the noise down.”

At John’s questioning eyebrow, Summers shrugged and looked a little awkward. 

“He can always hear if any of the students are...being intimate. He gets this pinched look as if it pains him and...” Summers trailed off for a moment looking thoughtful and completely ignoring the distress he was causing John with this particular conversation topic. 

“...you know what? Never mind,” Summers said with that mischievous smile he always got these days when he found some way to annoy Wolverine. “Make as much noise as you want, knock yourselves out.”

John backed away and shuddered at the thought of Wolverine eavesdropping on students having sex, no matter how unintentional it might be. It was almost enough to turn a guy celibate. Unless that guy was dating Bobby Drake, John thought as his boyfriend came into sight.

Bobby had been studying in the main library with Piotr and Rogue and was laughing at something Piotr had said as they all walked down the stairs. He hadn’t noticed John yet, which was good because Jones and Artie chose that moment to approach John, acting as if they were in a particularly bad spy movie and generally looking shifty enough that anyone who looked at them would know they were up to something.

“Objective achieved,” Artie hissed at John from the corner of his mouth as he intently studied the completely blank wall to John’s left.

“There was a slight infiltration by a trio of birds but we got rid of them before they could really ruin the mission. There may be a slight infection of girl-itis but not enough to be harmful,” Jones murmured from John’s right where he was pretending to tie a slip on shoe.

“You’re both nuts,” John told them with a snort of amusement before adding, “Good job! Now get out of here before Bobby sees you.”

John was still watching them commando roll out of the foyer when Bobby came up behind him.

“What are they doing?” Bobby asked and John shrugged.

“Celeste made them watch another Mission Impossible marathon,” he lied. “You know how much she likes Jeremy Renner.”

“If I never have to watch that Hansel and Gretel movie again, it will be too soon,” Bobby said emphatically although John knew that he had privately quite enjoyed it.

“I heard the jet take off,” Rogue said as she and Piotr joined them. “Another mission?”

John nodded and Rogue and Piotr looked disappointed. They, along with Kitty, had been training to join the X-Men team and kept hoping that one of these days, they’d be allowed to go on an actual mission. Summers told John and Bobby that they were nowhere near ready for a proper mission yet but that the Professor might let them go on an easy run if something came up. 

Unsurprisingly, John, Bobby and Jubilee had turned down the chance to join the X-Men. Instead they were planning on going to NYU; well John and Bobby were, Jubilee still had a year to figure out what she wanted to do but John would put money on her joining them in New York.

“I take it that you will both be spending the night in the rec room?” Piotr asked and Bobby nodded.

“It’s a good thing my birthday isn’t until tomorrow or I’d be pissed,” he joked.

“Nah, you’d just passive-aggressively eat your own weight in ice cream, sugar,” Rogue told him with a grin.

It hadn’t taken long for Rogue to get over Bobby breaking up with her but it had taken a little longer for her to get over the fact that Jubilee hadn’t been the reason, it had been John. It had actually taken Wolverine talking to her that had caused her to stop sending John death glares and generally get over herself. John didn’t know what Wolverine had said, wasn’t sure that he wanted to know now after that conversation with Summers, but life was definitely easier when Rogue decided to be friends with them again rather than acting like the biggest bitch in Westchester. 

“We’d better go and grab our stuff,” John told Bobby. “And some decent DVDs. I am not sitting through another viewing of Frozen; I don’t care how much the girls like it.”

“It’s not that bad,” Bobby said and John rolled his eyes. 

“Of course _you_ like it. It’s about an ice princess who has to hide her powers but there’s just way too much _singing_ ,” John protested. “I want to watch a movie with spaceships and improbable battles of good versus evil.”

“Star Wars, in other words,” Rogue said and John grinned.

“What a great suggestion, Rogue.” He slung an arm around Bobby’s shoulders. “Come on, Drake; let’s find a copy of Star Wars to make everyone watch.”

Bobby chuckled and waved goodbye to Piotr and Rogue as he let John lead him back up the stairs towards the dorms. 

“The Cuckoos are never going to let us watch Star Wars again so soon,” he told John. “And I’m pretty sure that it’s Doug’s pick tonight anyway.”

John pulled a face. “Doug has the worst taste in movies. He’ll probably make us watch the new Sharknado or something.”

“There’s another one of those? Really?” Bobby opened the door to their room. “One was entertaining but how can...”

Bobby trailed off as he took in the changes to the room.

John closed the door and then wrapped his arms around Bobby from behind.

“Is that...what is that?” Bobby asked and John chuckled.

“It’s a blanket fort.”

“Okay.” Bobby nodded dumbly. “Why is there a blanket fort? And why does it take up the entire room?”

John turned Bobby to face him and gave him a lingering kiss. “Happy Birthday.”

Bobby blinked at him. “But...it’s not my birthday until tomorrow and it’s a mission night.”

“Well, considering how much effort the Misfits have put into helping me do this, I think they’d actually hurt us if we showed up downstairs and ruined all their good work,” John informed him. “And as for the first one, it will be your birthday by the time I’m finished with you.”

Bobby’s eyes darkened at the promise in John’s voice and he pulled John in for a deeper kiss. 

“Okay,” John said. “Let me give you the tour.”

He pulled back one of the blankets and ducked down to climb inside the fort. They had all begged and borrowed boxes which had been piled at various points around the room to allow some height inside the fort but the way the blankets were draped, made the entire space feel small and cosy. John and Bobby’s beds had been tipped against the walls outside of the fort and mattresses had been dragged onto the floor inside before being covered in more blankets and cushions.

John laughed when he saw the evidence of the ‘trio of birds infiltration’. There was a single string of fairy lights along the ceiling of the fort and a couple of pink cushions that could only belong to the Cuckoos. John had to admit that the lights were a very effective way to light the inside of the fort without being too bright. At the bottom of the mattresses was an overturned wooden box that had a TV and DVD player on it and the pizza that John had asked Artie to order was waiting to one side, ready for whenever they settled in to watch a movie.

“You did this for me?” Bobby looked shell shocked as John pulled him down to sit on the mattresses. 

“The others helped, obviously,” John told him. “But this seemed more us than taking you to a fancy restaurant or throwing a big surprise party.”

“It’s amazing, John.” Bobby’s smile was probably bright enough to light up the fort without the need for those fairy lights. “I love it!”

John felt his nerves finally start to fade and grinned back at him. 

“So...what do we do first? Movie? Pizza?” Bobby exaggeratedly waggled his eyebrows at John. “Kinky sex?”

“All three, obviously,” John replied. “In which order is up to you though, Birthday Boy.”

Bobby hummed and pretended to look thoughtful before saying exactly what John had known he’d say. “I think that if we have sex now, then we can recharge with the movie and pizza before going again later.”

“Is that what you think, Princess?” John smirked at him even as Bobby pushed him back down against the blanket covered mattresses and straddled him.

“Well, you did promise that it would be my birthday by the time you’re done with me,” Bobby pointed out and leaned down to give John a scorching kiss that, as usual, had John straining for more.

“I love you, John,” Bobby panted into the juncture of John’s neck and shoulder after they finally broke apart.

John raked his hands through Bobby’s hair and gave into the inevitable; finally letting go of his old fear and saying what he’d known for a while but been unable to give voice to.

“I love you too.”

**  
The End.**


End file.
